


Sounds of the Heart

by Selaxes



Series: The Days That Followed [4]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Bigotry, Drama & Romance, F/F, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Other, Recreational Drug Use, Romance, Underage Drug Use, Violence, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-14 01:10:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 77,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16029902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selaxes/pseuds/Selaxes
Summary: When Judy Hopps let for Zootopia she opened the door for other rabbits of the Hopps family to pursue dreams and goals other than farming. Thus we meet Bailey Hopps, a young rabbit with a passion for gymnastics who also discovers that his sister isn't the only one that likes predators.What follows is a tale of first love, the joy and pain that it can bring, and how love can overcome many challenges should one listen to the Sounds of the Heart...





	1. Chapter 1

Chalk dried the slight dampness on the rabbit’s paws as sharp eyes regarded the challenge that lay several feet away. With a deep breath to steady a slightly elevated heart rate followed by a powerful spring forward the rabbit was off, feet slapping the floor before knees bent then straightened explosively, the powerful jump launching the rabbit forward and up. As soon as fingers and paws connected with the round bar, the inertia and momentum were turned into a lift and then spin that ended after a full revolution to a vertical stand.

Bailey Hopps never felt more alive than when he was running through a routine on the high bar, rings or tumbling across a mat covered floor, though initially his parents had frowned upon his interest in gymnastics. Fortunately his older sister had shown that rabbits could be more than just carrot farmers and what once might have been considered aberrant behavior was now something acceptable. Judy had broken from the stereotype and thus freed her siblings that saw something more in their future than a life of farming.

The rabbit split his legs parallel to the bar with the second revolution, twisting with a silent grunt to turn one hundred and eighty degrees at the top of his orbit, paws again latching onto the bar for the downward portion before yanking his body upward. He caught the wooden rod with his abdomen, bending over it and turning the energy he’d developed into another spin, his legs splayed straight to the sides so that his feet rested on the smooth wood and launching upwards once more. After transitioning from spins to vertical arm stands several more times, Bailey completed another revolution around the high bar once more before flying into the air on a ballistic arch complete with three full tumbles before landing on the mat with a loud pop that combined the hitting of his feet on the mat and the sudden expulsion of air from the thick pad. The rabbit held his arms thrown high in success of sticking the landing. The last time he’d tried a triple somersault dismount had seen him sprawling face first on the thick mattress.

Hoots and clapping from some of the other gymnasts went unnoticed as Bailey let out the breath he’d been holding before opening his topaz colored eyes, realization finally settling that the routine was not only flawless, so was his landing. A surge of accomplishment filled him and Bailey jumped straight up with a fist pump of victory.

“Excellent, Hopps! You do that at the competition and we go all the way!” the coach told him, the mink clapping with pleasure at what had been an aggressive routine and dismount. He turned to the rest of the Bunnyburrow West High School gymnastics team and blew twice on his whistle to get the other young mammals back to being focused on their own practice. “Shower up, Hopps,” Coach Mustelli told his rising star. “Same time tomorrow.”

Bailey nodded, his blood still singing with adrenaline and endorphins, a grin plastered on his muzzle as he scampered from the mat to the bench along the wall that had his things in it. The different gymnasts weren’t the only ones in the school gym as the girls’ volleyball team was running through practice and tryouts for a several girls that wanted on the team on the other side of the large room, one of them a recent transfer student from some European country. Bailey had seen her around the halls for the past few weeks but hadn’t really had the chance to talk to her.

What actually interested the young rabbit buck for the moment wasn’t really meeting the new student. He was interested in simply watching the girls cavorting on the court in their shorts and cropped T-shirts, his smoky amber brown eyes drinking in the plethora of female lovelies as they coordinated in perfect synchronicity to keep the ball from hitting the floor in-bounds. New tryouts were mixed with the veteran players and Bailey smiled a little at the show, his short tail twitching happily as he observed the action.

“Dude, your eyes are going to fall out if you look any harder!” one of his fellow gymnasts and friend said as he came up, Garret Woolerton being one of the better students when it came to working the vault and horse. The young ram chucked his friend on the shoulder with a laugh but turned and looked at the girls as well, draping his elbow across the rabbit’s shoulders as he kicked one hoofed foot up. “I can see why they got your attention, though.”

Bailey snorted and stood, throwing his friend off balance for a fraction of a second. If Garret had fallen over he wouldn’t have been part of the boys’ gymnastics team. “I’m a rabbit,” he said with a grin. “I can’t help it.” The young buck pulled a water bottle out of his bag and took a long swig before sprinkling a bit on a small towel and wiped his ears down to cool off a little faster. “So, Gary, what do you know about the new girl?”

The ram tilted his head left and right as he watched the girls on both sides of the net. “Uh…which one? There’s like half a dozen over there?”

Before Bailey could specify he saw one of the junior varsity players that was one of the team’s stars drop and sweep her foot out as the new girl was backpedaling to get the ball, causing her to tumble unceremoniously onto the floor while the other girls pointed and laughed in derision. “Hey!” the buck shouted before bolting over to the practice game. 

The girl that tripped the new student looked up as Bailey came over, a smirk on her face until she realized that it was one of the more popular boys that interrupted the practice game. The bunny’s ears perked up and she smiled warmly. “Hi, Bailey,” she cooed. “Something wrong?”

The buck pushed past the doe to the new girl and held out a paw to help her up. He shot a frown at the bunny before turning to the vixen who was rubbing the back of her head where it had hit the floor. She looked up in surprise to find a rabbit offering the first real gesture of friendship she’d encountered since moving to Bunnyburrow. 

“Are you okay? You took a pretty hard hit, there,” Bailey told her.

The vixen caught herself reaching to the proffered paw before stopping herself and pushing herself to her feet on her own. “I…I’m fine…” the fox mumbled, her eyes finding the floor instead of looking into those of the young rabbit.

Bailey’s ears fell as the vixen turned and walked off the court, her own ears and tail drooping as she paused long enough to grab a few belongings that sat in front of the wall before disappearing into the girls’ locker room. With a look of anger, the buck turned on the does that had halted the game to watch, the bunny that had tripped the vixen standing with a smug expression, her arms crossed over her chest.

“What’s with you, B?” she asked in a sarcastic tone. “Are you going to be like your sister, or are you going to stick with your own kind?”

The rabbit blinked in a moment of shock, anger rapidly replacing his stunned state at the question. “Really, Tara? You’re a hater?” Bailey asked in disgust as he let his arm drop to his side as his eyes flicked towards the doorway the vixen had vanished into. “And you’ve got the nerve to ask me that question?”

One of the doe’s eyebrows shot up, her contrite expression turning into a distasteful sneer as her ears shot straight up and slightly forward in challenge. “It figures,” the bunny accused. “Going to be a baiter like your sister, hmm? You wanna do the dirty with a filthy carnivore?”

“Get bent,” Bailey shot back. “Only you would take trying to be decent as me wanting to yank her tail up and ride her haunches,” he told the white furred doe before heading to the boys’ locker room right as one of the coaches began to make her way over to see what the disruption was. “You’re a real piece of work, hater,” he tossed back over his shoulder.  
“What was that all about, dude?” Garret asked with a concerned expression as he entered the locker room with the rabbit. 

“Just Tara being a complete hate-beast,” the buck told his friend. “That crap was completely uncalled for.” Bailey opened up his locker and pulled out various toiletries and crammed his bag in after grabbing a larger towel and began to shuck the tights made for performing gymnastics. “You know, I never thought she was so anti-pred.”

“It’s Tara, dude,” Garret quipped. “You know, back in the old days she’d probably be offered up as a sacrifice to predator raiders. I’ve heard that even her own family can’t stand her. Though she’d have probably given some pred a case of indigestion…” The ram grabbed his own towel and soap before heading for the showers as well. “What really gets me is you used to think she was pretty.”

Bailey snorted as he turned on the water and waited for it to warm up before stepping under the blast of warm water. “Yeah. Too bad her cute is countered by being a total psycho, hate-filled freak. And who does she think she is accusing me of wanting to hump the new girl when she’s been with like half the school?!? Hey, Pot! Meet the Kettle!”

The ram snorted as the thick wool on his head fell over his eyes, though the sardonic grin he wore was quite clear. “Let it go, dude! We only have to deal with her until this school year’s over then it’s off to college. Don’t let her ruffle your fur so much.”

Bailey was able to let it go as the hot water blasted his fur and the skin underneath as his thoughts turned to the vixen. It was already hard enough being a transfer without the different cliques causing trouble, particularly the one led by Tara Lagontelli and her coterie of snobbish does. It wasn’t just preds that the girls targeted, but any non-rabbit or student that didn’t fit into their definition of acceptable. Apart from that, the young rabbit thought the fox was interesting on a couple of levels, including being spectacularly beautiful.

It was enough to make Bailey realize that maybe he had something in common with his sister in the fact that he was more than a little attracted to a fox. It was a little weird, and he did feel a slight pang of guilt, especially as he’d never really been drawn to girls of his own species. Part of it, though, was the extremely odd colors and patterns the vixen had. He’d seen pictures and images of white furred Arctic foxes, and he understood melanistic variations from biology classes the previous year, but he’d never seen white fur with grey speckling and highlights. 

Not to mention she had the most intense, deep blue eyes…

Shaking his head, Bailey returned his attention to getting clean and shut the water off, wicking the excess water out of his fur with a plastic blade before stepping into one of the industrial strength fur dryers on the wall on the other side of the shower bay. Once he felt satisfied that all the moisture was gone from his fine, soft coat, the buck dressed quickly, his stomach rumbling as the afternoon wore on close to dinnertime. 

Garret had already left, anxious to get into to town to meet up with a ewe that he’d just started dating at the beginning of the school year just a few months prior. Slinging his bag over his left shoulder, Bailey trotted to the student parking lot where he had his vehicle, one of his Dad’s old farm pickup trucks, waited for him. It had taken all summer to get the small truck running and mended so that it was actually legal to put on the road. At least it was a four-wheel-drive, and with a good coat of primer it was ready for eventual painting. It had been nice working on the truck with his Dad, and for a week tinkering on it with his vulpine brother-in-law.

One of the absolute luxuries that Bailey had put in was an actual stereo instead of the ancient analog AM/FM radio that still resided in the dash. The new unit was slung underneath and instead of CD’s, it piped music from the buck’s iCarrot. It was to the sound of the band Souxie and Bunnies, a group that was more metal themed that Bailey used when he worked out to get him jazzed, that he pulled out and headed home with only to pull over less than two miles later, shock and anger vying for dominance. The buck slapped the shifter into neutral and stomped the parking brake down, shutting the engine off as he opened the door.

“What happened?!?” Bailey inquired of the fox that had been knocked down by Tara, his voice full of concern and compassion.

The vixen that had been the target of bullying by Tara Lagontelli bore damp fur under her eyes with tears still flowing. By far, though, the rest of her was what had gotten Bailey’s attention. Her fur, the portions that were visible were dyed bright red while her blouse was smeared with epithets in red paint like ‘murderer’, ‘killer’, ‘savage’, and more than a few that called her names in unsavory terms used for girls of loose morals.

The vixen tried to pull away, refusing to look Bailey in the eye, sobbing softly as she tried to move around the rabbit.

“Please!” the buck finally pleaded, his heart hammering with the turmoil of emotions inside him, wanting to help the fox, longing to get revenge on the girls that had acted so cruel, and a little flustered by the strange urge to hug the vixen and tell her it would all be okay.

Bailey shook his head slightly. He still didn’t even know her name.

“Excusing me…” the vixen husked in a soft, quavering voice. “I wish only to go home…” she sobbed still trying to get around the rabbit.

“Stop!” Bailey said a little more forcefully. “I just want to help! Really,” he said as the vixen finally gave in and stood in front of him trembling. “Let me help?” the buck said more softly. When she actually looked up, her sapphire eyes meeting his, the rabbit thought he felt his heart skip a beat. “I’m pretty sure that my Mom knows something to get the dye out of your fur. Besides,” he added with a partial but heartfelt smile as he put a paw behind his head as his ears darkened, “you’ve had a heck of a day and I thought…I…um…I figured you could use a friend, you know?”

Suspicion flitted through her eyes for a moment before the vixen sagged in on herself. “A friend would be nice…” she admitted.

“C’mon,” Bailey said, a smile finally spreading across his short muzzle as his ears shot straight up. “We’ll get you situated,” he told her as he darted to the side of the truck and opened the door for the fox, helping her put her backpack behind the seat. She had her seatbelt on before the rabbit made it to his side and slid in behind the wheel. He turned the key and reached for the shifter before holding his paw out. “I’m Bailey Hopps, by the way.”

Even through the dyed and tear stained fur the vixen’s smile was absolutely radiant, the buck finding her sharp teeth more intriguing and exciting than frightening and felt his ears heat up in a blush as she took his paw in a surprisingly gentle grip, her pads warm and comforting. “I am being Riina Kettu.”

Bailey wasn’t aware of maintaining the contact as his smile widened. “Riina…” he said, trying the sound of her name out and liking the way it felt to say it. “That’s pretty. What…uh…what is it? I mean, where are you from?”

The light laugh that the fox gave was musical and so much sweeter than the sobs of moments before. “Finland. Poppa is buying a farm of apple trees here in Bunnyburrow.”

“The old Jenkins’ place? Really? That’s great! That makes us neighbors! They had the best apple orchard in the whole Triburrows!” the buck enthused. He got the truck in motion and shifted up before glancing at the vixen. “Well, as close as neighbors can be out here. You’re about a half mile from my parents’ farm. We grow carrots and berries and other things. Well, Mom and Dad do. I’m more into gymnastics.”

“I am knowing this,” Riina said as she tried to smooth her skirt, frowning when her pads left red smears on the denim fabric. “You are being very good.”

“Thanks!” Bailey replied, feeling a sort of strange, alien warmth suffuse him at the praise. While her language was a little off in tense and verb placement, the buck thought that it was adorable with the unaccustomed sensations filling his chest moving to other parts of his body that created a little discomfort. He tried to shift in an effort to alleviate the suddenly ill fitting manner of his clothing, hoping that the Riina didn’t notice, his ears blushing so hard the buck swore they’d burst into flames at any moment. “So you and your family are running the old Jenkins’ apple orchard? Well, I guess it’s the Kettu orchards, now, huh?”

Riina nodded and smiled again, her head dipping demurely as she did, almost as if she were embarrassed to smile. “It is a farm of great potential and beauty…er…I mean orchard. I am being sorry. My speaking is not as good as it should be. I have only been speaking your language for a couple of weeks.”

“Oh, no!” Bailey exclaimed. “I like the way you speak! It’s actually kind of sweet!” the buck reassured the fox, looking at her a moment too long. He whipped his head back around, tightening the grip of his paws on the wheel as the right side tires rumbled on the shoulder of the road. “Sorry about that,” he mumbled, his neck and head dipping between his shoulders in chagrin.

Riina said nothing, her smile growing incrementally as she gazed out the window at the passing greenery. The poor rabbit was more than a little worked up, though she doubted it was because of her. More the pity, the vixen thought, as Bailey was really quite attractive. She’d almost missed several easy serves during the tryout game, her eyes having been riveted to the rabbit as he’d worked the high bar. Before she knew it the buck pulled off the road onto the graveled drive prior to the house that her own parents had purchased. They followed the lane until Bailey swung the truck into a garage next to what appeared to be a normal house, albeit rather large, built atop a hill. There were several other cars and pickup trucks inside.

“Now, let’s go see what we can do about this dye or paint or whatever it is,” the buck said as he opened his door. “And…um…if you want, maybe you could…um…stay for dinner.”  
“It would not be imposing?” Riina inquired, wanting to take up the offer and curious to learn more about the rabbit.

“Definitely not. We don’t have as many bunnies here like we did when I was a kit. There’s only about a hundred and seventy of us now. Back when I was little there were over two hundred and forty, but with some of my older brothers and sisters moving out and starting their own families we have more space.” Bailey scampered to the other side of the truck and got the door for the fox, plucking her backpack from behind the seat. When he noticed that she was eyeing her blouse with a frown he patted her shoulder in reassurance. “Don’t you worry about that. I bet Lori’s got some stuff that will fit you. She’ll be another one we want to talk about getting that gunk out of you fur, too. Lori’s our resident whiz when it comes to dyes and stuff because she’s all about becoming a fashion designer or something.”

Riina paused. “Wait, please. Lori is being a bunny with the pink and purple furs, yes?” the fox inquired.

“Uh, yeah. She’s kind of hard to miss at school, huh?”

The vixen smiled. “She is being in many of my classes! She is also being a very nice and friendly bunny, yes? I am liking her much!”

“Yup,” Bailey agreed. “That’s my sister. A little wild in the color department, but she loves everybody. Well, almost everybody. When she finds out that Tara and her little gaggle of harpies did this, Lori’s going to go banana-nuts.”

Riina gripped the buck’s arm with something bordering on desperation. “I am not wanting to be causing the troubles!”

“Hey! It’s okay, Riina. Really,” Bailey informed the fox with his paw covering hers, both seeming startled at the contact and let the touch linger for several moments. “Tell you what,” the rabbit said as he turned back to the truck and rummaged in the space behind the seat before pulling out a light windbreaker. “Put this on. That’ll keep things mellow in case Mom sees you and it’ll keep some of the younger bunnies from learning words that would be best for them to hold off on.”

Riina accepted the assistance in getting the jacket on and smiled with a slight tilt of her head, her ears perked fully erect. “You are being too nice to me, Bailey,” she all but whispered before leaning close and gracing the buck with a peck on his cheek just past the corner of his mouth. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Bailey husked, his eyes wide as his paw touched his face, the spot that her muzzle had brushed for a moment feeling warm and tingly while inside he felt as if he were going to float away.

He realized that both of them were still standing there in an awkward silence and probably would for quite some time if he didn’t get his act together. When he took Riina’s paw in his and she didn’t protest, but gave him another small smile it was enough to make the rabbit feel as if life had suddenly become something akin to the best dream he’d ever had. When he led the vixen into his family’s house, it was with a bounce in his step and a dazed expression on his face. They didn’t release their entwined fingers until the buck reached for the door and the rabbit ushered her inside.

“Hey, Mom?!? You home?” Bailey called as soon as they were both in the house. The buck had turned slightly as he closed the door, the answer to his query being the sound of a baking sheet hitting the floor. Whipping about, the buck saw his mother standing in the opening that let into the large kitchen, a tray of biscuits and the sheet they’d been on all over the floor at the older doe’s feet, her paw clutched to her breast as Bonnie’s eyes widened in shocked fright. “No! This isn’t what you think!” the buck told his mother quickly. “It’s dye! Or…something! It’s not blood!”

It took several seconds, but the light brown and buff colored bunny took in a breath as a shiver ran through her, ears that had been plastered to the back of her head finally starting to rise. “I swear,” she began in a slightly quavering voice, “you kits are going to be the death of me one day…”

“Maybe,” Bailey said as he urged the once again shy vixen further into the entry foyer before stepping up to his mother to give her a kiss on her cheek. “But not today, Mom. This is Riina. She and her family are the ones that bought the old Jenkins’ place.”

Bonnie nodded, her eyes still on the young vixen. “Okay. I knew we had fox neighbors. But would you mind explaining…this?”

Bailey moved back to the fox and urged her forward. “Bullies. I think Tara Lagontelli did it, but I don’t have proof,” the rabbit informed his parent. “What can we do to get it out of her fur?”

The doe pointed at the biscuits for her son to gather up as she stepped forward to the vixen and began to examine the red dye. “Not sure yet,” she commented. “Goodness! How did so much of it get all over you?” Bonnie inquired with a frown.

“It was being in my shampoo I am thinking,” Riina whispered, casting her eyes down.

The bunny nodded as she took the vixen’s paw and all but hauled her into the kitchen over the sink. “That means whatever this is might not have set yet. Let’s find out,” she added, flipping the water of the sink on before moving quickly from cabinet to cabinet. “Riina, right?” Bonnie said as she set different items on the counter next to the large stainless steel sink. “Step over here and let’s see if we can find something to get all of the red out of your fur.”


	2. Chapter 2

Bonnie was able to determine that the dye that had been slipped into the vixen’s shampoo was a common food coloring derived from plant extracts and that a mixture of club soda, baking soda and salt cut right through it before mixing a batch up and sending the timid fox off with one of the bunnies that had been in the kitchen helping with supper preparations to show Riina where she could shower in peace and put on a change of clothes. Once the fox had been taken care of the older doe turned to her son.

“Tell me what happened, Bailey,” Bonnie instructed as she took a seat at a small table that sat in one corner, a plastic tumbler of iced tea in paw, a stern, questing glare in her eyes.

The young buck took the seat directly across from his mother, his own paws clenched tightly together. He told his mother what had happened during the girls’ team volleyball tryouts, then on seeing the vixen walking home looking a complete fright and understandably distraught. Bailey was almost expecting his mother to chastise him and visibly jolted when she reached across the table and patted his clenched paws.

“You did the right thing,” Bonnie said, her expression softening before she sighed. When she let out a little laugh and shook her head Bailey only tilted his own quizzically as his ears spread into a wide V of confusion. “You know, I never thought I’d see the day when the Hopps family began to collect predators! What with your sister marrying Nick, Jeremy dating Celeste, now you bringing home a vixen…” Bonnie trailed off and laughed again before polishing off her blue plastic glass of tea, the ice cubes clicking together. “If I’d ever hoped for boring none of you are going to let that happen, are you?” she quipped as she stood and tousled the fur between her child’s ears. “I guess you want her to stay for dinner?”

“Can she?” Bailey asked brightening noticeably. “I mean…”

“Yes,” Bonnie replied. “Go get some of Nick’s tofu burgers out of the fourth freezer. You’ll get to cook them for her, though!” the doe added with a wink before turning back to the main portion of the evening meal. “Oh. And you better call her parents and check with them, too.”

“You got it, Mom!” the buck tossed over his shoulder as he got up and darted to the cold storage section on the floor below the main kitchen.

There wasn’t any meat in the tofu burgers, but Nick swore that they were actually quite tasty and when Riina reappeared, Lori Hopps accompanying her, the vixen was astonished that there was such offerings from the Hopps’ kitchen and she smiled happily upon discovering it was Bailey that was cooking them for her.

“I was always being taught that it is the vixen’s place to be cooking for the males,” she said with a coquettish grin when the buck shooed her away with a small spatula. “How is it that you are having such things at paw for cooking?” Riina inquired. “I am going to be sounding stupid, but are bunnies often liking such things as soy proteins?”

“We need protein just like any other mammal,” Bailey told her with a chuckle as Lori joined them. “Normally we get ours from beans or legumes and stuff.”

Riina blinked, touched but also slightly confused. “Is it often that you save young foxes from bad things that you need such?”

The question was valid, but the manner in which it was phrased caused Bailey’s ears to redden in a blush, the pantomime that Lori performed with her paws over her breast to indicate a beating heart and the feigned swoon didn’t help the young buck’s composure in the slightest.

Though the thumbs-up gesture and knowing wink his sister tossed his way bolstered Bailey’s spirits somewhat.

“Our sister’s husband comes to visit often enough that we like to have things for him on paw,” the rabbit told their guest. “She fell in love with a fox, married him, and they visit when they can or need to get away from the city for a while.” Bailey turned back around to flip one of three patties that sizzled happily on an electric grill, the recent addition to the number of kitchen appliances stemming from the buck’s brother-in-law from introducing his extended family by marriage the joys of grilled vegetables. “Oh. Don’t forget to call your parents and tell them where you are. We don’t want you getting in trouble.”

Riina nodded and looked around the kitchen area, her ears lowering when she didn’t immediately spot a telephone. “Where is a phone being?” she asked innocently enough.

“You don’t have a cell phone?” Lori asked in surprise, her nose wriggling slightly as one eyebrow shot up.

“No. My parents haven’t yet had the chance to get me one. May I use yours?” the vixen asked a moment before she accepted the doe’s.

She and her brother watched as the fox tapped in a number on the touch screen then spoke in rapid words that neither could follow, though the language, Finnish they assumed, sounded lilting and musical as far as Bailey was concerned. He was worried for a moment at the rather protracted exchange, though his ears went up and his tail twitched happily when Riina smiled as she spoke once more before lowering the device. “Thank you.”

Lori took her iCarrot back and tapped the appropriate icon. “Not a problem!” Slipping her phone into one of the pockets of her jumper, the short legs slashed and intentionally frayed to show off the swirling black and bright purple dye job of her fur, the doe took the fox’s paw. “We’re gonna go hang for a bit in the second living room until dinner. That okay with you, bro?”

If anything, Bailey would have been happier for Riina to have stayed where she was, but shrugged. “Sure. I’ll just stay here slaving away over a hot griddle…all alone…by myself…”  
“Idiot!” Lori quipped with a light jab to her sibling’s shoulder. “You got Mom plus Andy, Jed, Kayla, Paula, Tawny, Les-“

“Yeah, yeah,” Bailey said as he stopped his sister from rattling off the names of the twenty one other rabbits helping in the kitchen. “I get it. Go on.”

The multicolored doe pulled the vixen along, noticing the way Riina looked back over her shoulder as they exited, her ears twitching as she picked up the fox’s increased heartbeat. She waited until they were in the relative seclusion of the stairs that led to the lower levels before speaking quietly. “You like Bailey, huh?”

“What?” the fox replied, her face clearly showing guilt as she lowered her head and tried to look away. “I…that is…he…h-he is being a good rabbit and…”

Lori used her grip on the petite fox’s paw to pull the other into a friendly shoulder bump. “It’s okay,” the doe told the vixen with a grin. “We’ve all gotten used to that kind of thing. What with our sister Judy being married to a fox and our brother Jeremy seeing a coyote it’s kind of becoming a Hopps family trait. My siblings love them some preds!”

“But I cannot!” Riina husked, a fearful cast to her deep blue eyes as her tail fell to the floor and her ears lowered so much the tips almost touched her shoulders. “It is not being a good thing!” she exclaimed. “I-i-is it?”

Lori shrugged. “I don’t see a problem with it,” the doe admitted. “I mean, I can see why some of my family would be into preds like you. You’re pretty, you’ve got some really cool looking fur colors. I had to dye mine because I was born as plain and brown as a mud puddle and looked just like a couple dozen of my brothers and sisters.”

The vixen shook her free paw in a slightly frantic manner. “But a fox liking a bunny? It is not il…eh…illegal in this country?”

“Illegal? You mean it’s against the law where you come from?”

Riina shook her head. “N-no…but in other places it is being such,” the fox said. She sighed in exasperation. “I am still not knowing much of this country…”

Lori smiled. “It’s not against the law. A lot of mammals don’t get it, you know, how prey and pred can fall in love with each other, but it’s not illegal. But these are the same mammals that don’t get how a mammal can love another of the same gender, either. Some are okay with it, some are confused, a few just hate anything different…”

“S-s-same gender?” Riina asked curiously.

Lori nodded. “You know, girls that like other girls, guys that like other guys? Sometimes a mammal that likes both?”

“Ah!” Riina exclaimed. “You are talking of one that is being...it is gay? Is that the word? I have been seeing this.”

“And do you think it’s wrong?” Lori asked with a questioning glance.

The vixen thought about it, a small furrow forming between her brows. “I do not think so. I am thinking that it is just a way of being what some mammals are. I was not choosing to be born as fox, but it is how I am.”

The doe smiled with a nod. “That’s how some of us view couples that are predator and prey. It’s just the way they are.” Lori found an open couch, though the fit was a little tight with the vixen’s slightly larger size. “Not all of our family sees this as normal, but they’re entitled to their opinions. As long as what you do doesn’t hurt another, then it’s okay, you know?”

Riina thought about this, the concept one that she could sympathize with, particularly after the day she’d had. “Do…do you think that Bailey is liking me?” she asked in a whisper, her eyes hopeful as she leaned closer to the bunny so that her words didn’t carry to the other rabbits in the room, all of them not too different in age than the vixen and doe.  


“Oh, yeah,” Lori snorted with a giggle. “I think he likes you a lot.”

The fox’s look brightened several degrees before it seemed like the light that came from within was turned off. “This…this is not good…”

“Why?”

The vixen shrugged and sank in on herself. “He will be made fun of,” Riina explained. “At school others will be causing the trouble for him if he is liking me. I do not wish for him to suffer this thing.”

Lori shifted, drawing her legs up as she faced the white and grey speckled fox. “You can’t think like that. Things are changing in the world. That and it’s like Judy says; Love just is. It doesn’t see the form. It just reacts to love given in return.”

Riina’s smile began to return. “This Judy is being very wise and clever,” she stated firmly. “Is she a teacher of philosophy or great thinker?”

The doe laughed. “I don’t know if I’d call Judy a ‘great thinker’!” Lori told the vixen. “I mean, she’s smart and all, and so is her husband. He’s really sweet, you know? But no, she’s a cop. A police officer. The first bunny cop in Zootopia and her husband is the first fox in the police department.”

The vixen gasped as her paws went to her muzzle and her eyes widened in stunned surprise. “Your sister is the one that solved the big crime of the Night Howlers!”

“You heard of her?”

“All have heard of Judy Hopps! I am stupid for not understanding that she is of your family!” Riina exclaimed. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

“Hey!” Lori said sharply as she pulled the vixen’s paws down and held onto them. “My friends aren’t stupid, so stop calling yourself that. And she goes by the name Hopps-Wilde, now. But, yeah. She was the one that cracked the case. And she married the fox that helped her. It threw our parents for a loop, but everything worked out.” The bunny looked at her friend and frowned. “What’s got you so worried if you like my brother?”

Riina again shook her head. “There will be trouble for him.” Her persistence relented for a moment and a smile appeared on her muzzle along with a dreamy gleam to her eyes. “But he is being very sweet and caring…”

“I guess. Bailey’s my brother, so I think there’s some rule about the number of times I can compliment him in a day, but he’s definitely one of the good guys. Why don’t the two of you just start as friends and then see where it goes? I mean, I can tell he really likes you already. And it’s better to try and find out than to let something slip away without ever knowing, right?”

Before the fox could say anything the rabbit in question came through the door. “Hey. Didn’t you two hear the bell? Supper’s ready!”

Lori got to her feet while looking back and forth between her brother and the fox. “You know, now would be a good time to try what I said,” she advised before heading to the dining hall but not before giving her sibling a soft shoulder check. “Be gentle with her,” she whispered as she passed. “She’s into you, but she’s kind of fragile.”

“Gotcha,” Bailey said, hearing his sister, though he only had eyes for the vixen as she stood and drew near. He wanted to take her paw but was afraid that it was too soon and that maybe rushing things wasn’t the best idea. Be her friend first, he told himself.

It was the hardest advice he’d ever given himself to follow.

******************

“That’s the last of the dishes, Mom!” Bailey called as he handed a small towel to the vixen who had insisted on helping out for her to dry her paws on. “I’m going to walk Riina home, okay?”

Bonnie nodded as she finished putting away a stack of plates into their cabinet. “That’ll be fine. Just don’t stay out too late, alright?”

The buck tossed his mother a playful salute before heading over to the corner table where they’d put the fox’s backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “Ready?” he asked with a smile as he gestured to the door.

Riina nodded, pausing a moment to step over to the older doe, her paws clasped in front of her. “Thank you for the invite to supper, Mrs. Hopps. It was being very good!”  
Bonnie smiled before pulling the vixen into a quick but heartfelt embrace. “Anytime, Riina. You’re friends with Bailey and Lori…and heaven knows how many of the little ones. You are always welcome over here!”

Riina, automatically returning the hug, felt a slight tightness in her chest. The day had been horrid, then to have everything turn out for the better because of a bunny family; it was almost more than she could cope with, but all of them had done their utmost to make her feel welcome, took care of the dye in her fur, and then included her in a family meal as if she were one of them. It was astonishing to say the least. “Thank you!” the vixen replied in her soft, accented voice that was thick with emotion. “I am going to be finding the way to repay all of the kindness that you have been showing me!”

“Oh, Riina, you don’t have to do that. It’s how things should be here in Bunnyburrow,” Bonnie replied as the pair separated. “Now, you better get going before it gets too dark.” She leaned past the fox to look pointedly at her son. “And I meant it about being out too late.”

“Sure thing. And I’ll pass on the invite to Mr. and Mrs. Kettu while I’m there. The idea of grilling out this coming weekend was a great idea!”

Bonnie only nodded and smiled as the two stepped outside, the door closing behind them. As soon as it was shut the doe sighed. Leave it to her children to continue bringing home stray predators, and then to have those predators turn out to be such lovely mammals. As she turned to the coffee pot and prepared it for the morning, Bonnie wondered how much she’d missed out on in her younger days because of her own prejudice, how many friendships and fun times slipped by. There was no way to tell, but it was never too late to make up for it and to try and look at the world and the other mammals in it with better eyes and attitudes than the ones she used to harbor.

Then again, as far as things went, her son couldn’t have found a sweeter young thing to crush on and she chuckled inwardly as she scooped grounds into the filter basket and set the timer. The question was, what was with her kits and foxes?

******************

“I think I am loving your family,” Riina said as she and Bailey made it to the end of the driveway and turned to walk along the road to the farm that the vixen’s family had bought. “They are all being very sweet and most welcoming!”

Bailey snorted in amusement as he walked along beside the vixen, his paws in his pocket to keep from doing anything stupid, sticking to his own counsel and finding it harder than it sounded. “It wasn’t always that way. Bunnies…well, when you evolve from an animal that everything else used to look at as an entrée you tend to be afraid of those everythings. Mom and Dad used to be pretty wound up when it came to not trusting other mammals.”

“Was it being your sister’s mate that was changing this?” Riina asked with a coy smile.

“Yeah. I don’t think Mom and Dad really had a chance to hate and be afraid before Nick just sort of charmed them! You’d like Nick. He really is a swell guy and you can tell by the way he looks at my sister when he thinks that no one’s paying attention that he really loves her. And I mean ‘LOVES’ in big glowing letters.” Bailey chuckled softly. “My sister is about the luckiest bunny in the world at the moment because I don’t think that any of the rest of us will ever find anything like she has.”

“That is being a very…eh…pesti…miss…pestimistic thing to say.”

“Pessimistic?” Bailey inquired with a grin, his correction being taken in the manner it was meant as the vixen grinned in return. “Maybe, but you’d know what I meant if you could see Judy and Nick together. After ten minutes you feel like you’ve eaten too much sugar!”

“It is understandable,” Riina finally said as she edged a little closer to the buck. “Many foxes are finding their mate it is being forever.”

“But…but how do you know when you’ve found your mate?” Bailey asked in genuine confusion. “Bunnies…well, it’s just not our thing, normally. When the urge kicks in we’ll be with anyone, but it’s…it’s sort of hollow, you know? A biologically driven imperative.” The rabbit sighed. “I wonder what it’s like to actually have a mate…someone that just becomes everything to you. That and any non-rabbit that falls in love with us has to be a little crazy.”

That caused Riina to jerk her head back in surprise. “Why is one being crazy to love a bunny?”

Bailey shrugged before shoving his paws deeper into his pockets. “Look how easy it is to hurt us. Or for us to hurt ourselves. We can get so nervous that we keel over from heart failure, or turn ourselves into little balls of mentally unstable fluff…our bodies are less durable than other mammals…” The buck sighed. “What kind of life is that for another? To fall in love with someone that is a potential train wreck that’s just waiting to happen? Crazy!”

“But that is only being a small portion of what can be,” the vixen said. “What if the other finds that the bunny just makes them happy, and makes even bad days so very much better?” she asked in a leading way. “Would that be making it more sensible for one to be loving a bunny?”

“Maybe. But…well, it just seems unfair.”

“Ah,” Riina intoned before looking from the corner of her eye to the buck next to her. “And what of your sister, Judy, and being with her fox?”

Bailey actually laughed. “Judy has never been what any of us would even remotely call ‘normal’! She’s always been braver and tougher and more driven than any of the rest of us! Heck, I’ve even heard Nick say that there are times she acts and behaves more fox-like than bunny, like she’s wearing a costume or something!”

“Or maybe,” Riina began as she slipped a paw around the buck’s forearm, letting her shoulder rub against Bailey’s as they walked, “she knows that the heart is seeing what is more important than what the eyes see.”

The contact stopped the buck cold and he stood blinking smoky topaz colored eyes that had gone wide with shock at the vixen’s actions. “Riina…”

“My heart is not seeing a bunny,” she said softly. “It is seeing someone that was very kind and has a very great heart and is being very sweet to a lonely vixen that was badly needing a friend…”

Her face had drawn nearer as she spoke and it was all the rabbit could do to draw breath into lungs that desperately needed air as his heart hammered rapidly in his chest. Her deep blue eyes drew him in like the lake he and his friends swam in during the hottest days of the summer, soothing and cool, but unbelievably comforting. Before he could stop himself his muzzle was pressed to the vixen’s, the sensations that filled him so much more intense than he thought it would be like. She was all soft warmth and electric thrill, her breath sweet and strong as he shared his own with her.

Then they parted and it was all that Bailey could do to remain standing. “I…I think I’m going to pass out…” the buck admitted.

“Then I will be following you shortly,” Riina told him in a breathless whisper. “I…have never…k-kissed a boy before this…”

Bailey grinned. “That’s okay,” he replied, his voice slightly brittle sounding as his eyes shown in the deepening twilight. “I’ve never kissed a girl.”

Riina tilted her head quizzically. “But…you are being a rabbit and you just said-“

“Judy and Jeremy aren’t the only ones that aren’t normal in my family!” the buck said with a soft laugh. “Most rabbits think it’s weird that I’m still a virgin, too.”

The rest of the walk was mostly silent, each one saying all that really needed to be said as they held paws and cast supremely happy looks at the other with smiles and grins interspersed with soft chuckles and sighs. The house on the old Jenkins’ farm appeared too soon as far as either was concerned and they paused at the end of the driveway next to the mailbox mounted to an aged wooden post.

“This is going to sound really dumb, Riina, but what kind of fox are you?” Bailey finally asked, the question having been running through his head since that afternoon. The vixen didn’t look like any fox that he’d ever seen before and she seemed so much more colorful and elegant when compared to his buff and dun coloration. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as pretty as you are…”

The words had an immediate effect as the vixen’s ears pinkened deeply and she lowered her head shyly even though her tail threatened to dislocate from the rapid and joyful thrashing behind her. “I am called a platinum fox. It is not so common. Sometimes I am wishing that I was…more normal…”

The buck shook his head. “I don’t think that would suit you at all,” the rabbit husked. “You’re gorgeous just the way you are now.” His peripheral vision was good enough that he saw the fox’s tail begin to wag even harder than before, the motion actually causing her hips to sway from side to side.

“Bailey?” Riina asked as her head ducked even lower against her chest as she looked at the rabbit through her lashes. “May…may I be kissing you again?”

The blush from the buck’s ears flowed to his face, down his neck and throat and seemed to spread all the way to his fingers and toes. “Absolutely anytime you want…” Bailey whispered tremulously.

It was just as magical as the first, and when the fox’s paws found his neck and waist, Bailey felt like he had the time he’d snuck a sip of his father’s Christmas rum, but it was also different at the same time, a pleasure and joy so pure and unspoiled. When they parted, he found Riina’s eyes almost glowing as they regarded him and it was as if he could fall into those blue depths and lose himself forever.

It was absolute heaven!

It took time for each of them to get their breathing under control and after several long minutes Riina pulled him by the paw onto the front porch before opening the door and encouraging Bailey to follow her. “Mamma! Pappa! I am being home!”

Riina’s father was the first that Bailey saw as he was led into the living room of the house, followed by vixen’s mother. While Mrs. Kettu was a normal red fox vixen in coloration, Mr. Kettu was all black and smoky blue. Both had intense amber eyes that smiled along with their muzzles as soon as their daughter entered the room.

“Who’s this, dear?” the red vixen asked in perfect, although accented, English.

“Mamma, Pappa, this is being Bailey Hopps. He is the one I was telling you about!”

The two adult foxes looked at each other, Mr. Kettu’s eyebrows going up as Mrs. Kettu smiled with a knowing expression. She said something in Finnish that baffled the rabbit, the other fox replying, though whatever was said had an obvious effect on Riina, her entire bearing crying out extreme embarrassment. “Mamma!” the young vixen cried out in a shocked whisper.

“We are thanking you for coming to the rescue of our Riina,” the dark furred fox said as he stood, setting the book he’d been reading aside after marking the page. “She told us when she was calling to inform us of having supper with your family.” When the fox extended his paw as if he were an adult and equal, Bailey blinked at it for a moment before accepting the gesture with a surprised smile. “We have been told that you are a good mammal,” Mr. Kettu continued. “It seems as if our daughter was being correct!”

The short time with Riina’s family went rather well, and before leaving, Bailey asked if he had permission to give the young vixen a ride to and from school, the request impressing the two older foxes. It was Mrs. Kettu who guided her daughter away further into the house, giving her husband a small nod. The rabbit watched the vixen depart, Riina tossing a small smile over her shoulder and a finger wave as her ears blushed pinkly while her tail wagged a bit. Mr. Kettu put a paw on the young buck’s shoulder as he gently guided him to the door and out onto the porch.

“Tell your parents we are accepting their invitation for the weekend,” the fox said with a friendly and warm expression. “It is to be a rather happy occasion, I am thinking.”

“I hope so, Sir,” Bailey agreed.

The fox chuckled. “And I am thinking that Riina has indeed been fortunate to have discovered a friend such as you, Bailey. I am hoping that you will accept our invitation to supper tomorrow night?”

The rabbit nodded. “I’d like that very much, Sir!” 

The fox laughed as he clapped the rabbit on the back. “You may be calling me Tapio. You are Riina’s friend, so you are our friend!” He nodded and took the buck’s shoulders in his paws. “And we are truly grateful for your help. More so than we can say to you.”

With a squeeze to the rabbit’s arms, Tapio nodded and walked back into the house.

Bailey shuffled back to his home, his mind reeling and unable to stop thinking of the way it felt to kiss Riina, his lips still tingling as did the place on his trim waist and neck where her paws had held him. The buck was fairly certain if his tail were any larger that he would have wound up sprawled on the ground as even his short puff of fur was doing its best to wag right off his derrier. In fact, he was so distracted that he was in his room with his phone out before he realized it and found his small claw tip hovering above the screen.

Tapping the icon screen, Bailey was hardly aware of holding his breath until a reply came with the screen lighting up and a familiar face looked back at him with shining green eyes.

“Hey, Squirt! What’s going on? Everything all right?” Nick Wilde, red fox and the young buck’s brother-in-law inquired with a slightly concerned expression.

“Hey, Nick! Um…sorry for bothering you, but can I ask you for some advice?” the rabbit asked.

The fox quirked an eyebrow. “Sure, but are you positive you don’t want Judy? She’s a little better at rabbit conundrums than I am.”

Bailey flinched slightly. “Uh, yeah…the thing is it’s not a rabbit problem I’m having, but a fox problem…”

It was easy to tell that Nick sat up straighter, a look of concern pinching his features. “Is it a bully problem? Is someone messing with you or the others?”

“What?” the buck asked before his brain caught up. “No! No! Nothing like that! It’s…um…it’s about a…uh…a vixen I met…”

The fox on the screen blinked, his mouth falling open slightly before he dropped his head into his paw and began chuckling. “You bunnies and your messed up love lives!” Nick looked up and sighed. “Okay. Lay it on me, Squirt.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, young love. Just remember that it's been many, many...MANY years since I went through this myself, so...
> 
> And there have been some little changes to the story from when it was first published, but nothing major. Mostly cleaning up the writing and the like.


	3. Chapter 3

Riina Kettu was up and out of bed before the first peal of her alarm clock had finished, her paw smacking the OFF tab has she swung her legs over the edge. It had taken her until well after midnight to finally fall asleep, and when she did, the fox spent a restless evening dreaming about a tan and buff colored rabbit with eyes the color of smoky topaz and amber. It was impossible to keep the smile from her muzzle as she turned on the light to her room, pausing in her nightie to reach for the soft bristled brush on her nightstand. While the platinum fox began the routine of brushing her fur, starting with her cheeks before moving down her neck and throat, she recalled the scent that Bailey Hopps was surrounded by, a comforting sweet musk that reminded her of summer and pastel sunsets, soft skies in the evening with deep, cool green woods.

As the brush remedied the tufts of fur on her arms and legs, Riina recalled the feel of the rabbit’s paw in hers, the pads of his palm and fingers under the fur calloused from years of gymnastics, but still soft and warm and how his touch seemed so tender and gentle. When she pulled her tail over her lap and began to work on the thick brush, the vixen though to the kisses they’d shared, the feel of Bailey’s lips… it was just too delicious and warmed her deep in her heart and soul. Once her fur was in an acceptable state, the vixen stood and moved to her closet. She wanted to wear something nice for the rabbit buck as he’d be picking her up for school shortly so she wouldn’t have to walk.

Granted, Riina was keeping to the schedule that she’d been using to give herself plenty of time to walk to West Bunnyburrow High School, but the time now saved could be spent with the rabbit. Maybe they could have breakfast together if her parents were amicable to the idea…

Dressed and ready, Riina snagged her backpack and small pawbag from the small stool next to her desk and swung both a little as she stepped lively to the kitchen. “Hyvää huomenta! Good morning!” the young fox told her parents as she entered the small dining area where her parents were enjoying tea and coffee with plates that held karjalanpiirakka, a rye pastry filled with rice and boiled egg with munavoi, an egg butter. As soon as she entered, Ilona got her daughter a plate of her own.

“You look lovely, today,” the older vixen said with a smile as she put her child’s plate down before returning to her own breakfast then watched as her daughter got a small glass of soy milk and a cup of the Turkish coffee that she and her father were so fond of. “Would this be for a certain rabbit buck?” Ilona asked archly, though her golden eyes twinkled merrily.

Tapio simply continued on with his breakfast in silence, pretending not to be in the room, knowing that this was an area that it would be best for him to steer clear of. He’d learned long ago not to meddle in the affairs of the vixens in his life. He made a show of flicking the newspaper that he was reading and feigned interest in an article about local Bunnyburrow events, though his ears stood perfectly erect, twitching either left or right depending on which of his ladies was speaking.

“This does not look good?” Riina asked as she regarded herself once she put her cup and small glass down. By general consent all of them tried to converse in English instead of their native Finnish to better acclimate themselves to their new home. She eyed the dark green skirt in a thick cotton and light, eggshell colored blouse with half sleeves and cropped vest of dark blue. 

“One might argue it looks a little too good for something as simple as school,” Ilona persisted. “Is it to impress a certain rabbit, perhaps?”

Before her Riina’s ears flicked down the insides turned a deep pink and she instinctively lowered her head. “Mamma…I cannot stop thinking of Bailey…” she whispered. “Is this…am I…not good?”

The older vixen reached across the table and patted her child’s paw, a smile spreading across her muzzle. “It is not for us to determine what is and is not proper in your life, Riina. You are almost of legal age, but you are grown enough to determine what is best for you.” She cast a glance at her mate. “Tapio? Your thoughts?”

The silver fox put his paper down and glanced at his wife before giving his daughter a look of infinite warmth and kindness. “So long as my little mansikka is treated well, I am happy.” He looked at the younger vixen. “But your mother is correct. Does this Bailey make you feel happy?”

Riina nodded vigorously. “He does, Poppa. Very much!”

Before either fox could comment further on the subject there was a polite knock on the front door. Tapio waved his daughter to stay seated as he got up. “And I am thinking that this would be young Bailey,” he said with a smile and raised eyebrow towards his wife. “Finish you breakfast.”

Riina forked a bite of the pastry off as her ears swiveled in the direction of the front door, her heart lurching as she heard Bailey’s voice bid her father good morning and that he was there to pick up the vixen for school. She put the bite in her mouth and chewed, but the sudden case of nerves that fluttered in her stomach stole any flavor or enjoyment she might get from her first meal of the day.

In the entry way, Tapio smiled as he opened the door to find a nervous rabbit buck on the other side. “Good morning, Bailey,” the fox said. “And how are you today?”

It was clear to tell that the silver fox was enunciating slowly and carefully, like his daughter he was working on his English, and as far as Bailey could tell he was doing quite well. “Good morning, Sir,” the buck replied with a smile. “I, uh, I’m here to drive Riina to school,” he said. “I-i-if that’s all right?!?”

“Of course it is being all right,” the fox said with a smile as he clapped the slightly smaller rabbit on his shoulder, somewhat astonished at the solid muscle underneath the stylized school jacket the buck wore. The relief was clear to read in the set of the rabbit’s shoulders and the angle of his ears as they slowly stood erect. 

“M-m-may I ask a question, Sir?”

The fox raised a single eyebrow as he regarded the teenager. “Only if you do as I asked last night and call me Tapio. ‘Sir’ was my Grandfather, and I am hoping I do not look as old as he!”

“Oh, no, Sir! I-I-I mean, T-Tapio!” Bailey exclaimed softly.

“What is your question, Bailey?”

The young rabbit wrung his paws together as he screwed up his courage, getting ready to try a little of the advice that his brother-in-law had given him when it came to dealing with foxes. With a swallow he tried to get his nerves under control. “Sir…uh…I mean, Tapio…I, um, I’d like your permission to date…uh…court…Riina. I-i-if…if I may?” He swallowed again, his heart hammering wildly. 

Tapio regarded the young rabbit with a serious expression, noting that despite the intense scrutiny, Bailey straightened as much as he could and looked directly into the fox’s eyes as he awaited an answer. The fox couldn’t help the amount of teeth that he showed as a grin split his muzzle, though he did notice that the youth didn’t cringe or flinch, which was all to the boy’s credit. “So long as you are treating my mansikka with respect and courtesy, yes you may.”

Bailey’s heart redoubled its pace, but in absolute elation instead of the dread of moments before. “Thank you, Sir…er, Tapio. I promise that I’ll treat her properly and with respect.”

“Good. Now, I am knowing from when Riina normally leaves that you have time. Come. Be having breakfast with us. I am believing that Riina has something for you.”

Bailey followed, the smile on his muzzle at seeing Riina’s eyes brighten at his appearance matching the vixen’s own delighted expression. She stood quickly, noticing the way the buck looked at her clothing with appreciation. The fabrics were simple and common, as was the design of each item, but the fact that it was of a European cut and style wasn’t lost on the rabbit and Riina tilted her head. “You are liking?”

The buck nodded emphatically. “You look absolutely beautiful,” he said softly before recalling that her parents were present. “I mean…that is…”

“Bailey, it’s quite all right to compliment a lady on the manner in which she is dressed if you are genuinely appreciative,” Ilona said with a knowing smile. “Come. Sit down. Riina has made you a little something for breakfast.”

Bailey took the only chair that was available and sat up straight, his paws on his lap and smiling happily until a bowl appeared in front of him with a serving of stewed apples in cinnamon with a homemade shortcake biscuit and glass of almond milk. “You made this for me?” Bailey asked in surprise, the vixen nodding with a smile. 

“I am also having a container of more for you to take to have later,” the vixen told him as she reclaimed her chair and resumed her own plate of food. The rabbit and fox continued to glance at each other over the course of the meal until it was time to leave, both bidding the two older foxes a good day, Riina with hugs and kisses for her parents, Bailey with pawshakes and smiles. 

As soon as the young mammals left, Tapio chuckled warmly as he picked his paper back up, working at reading English with greater proficiency than he spoke it. Ilona looked at her husband with a knowing expression. “I take it that you understand what’s happening?” the vixen asked in Finnish so that her meaning was clear.

“Just what Riina’s feelings are?” the silver fox quipped. “Oh, I understand. She’s a little older than we were when we became mates, but I remember seeing the same look in your eyes when I would come calling to your parents’ house.”

Ilona rested her chin on her paws and sighed. “So what are we going to do about this?”

“Why do we have to do anything? If this is the one that she has chosen, there’s truly nothing we can do,” the silver fox pointed out. “To try and separate them would only drive her away. At least we don’t have the worry of grandkits before either of them are ready.”

“But Bailey’s a rabbit, mate of mine,” the vixen pointed out. “We won’t have grandkits at all!”

“That isn’t what is truly important, is it?” Tapio persisted as he leaned towards his vixen.

Ilona eventually began to shake her head in a negative. “No. I suppose it isn’t.” She took her husband’s paw. “Most important is her happiness.”

“Then what troubles you?”

“I don’t think that this would be so worrisome if Bailey were a fox…”

Tapio laughed, his rich baritone rolling through the kitchen as he squeezed the copper furred vixen’s fingers. “You’ve heard that Bailey’s sister is wed and mated to a fox, yes? And that his older brother, Jeremy, is seeing a coyote here in Bunnyburrow. I don’t think it’s quite as serious as the relationship of the sister. Then there is Bailey. You must admit that he’s very much unlike any rabbit either of us has ever known. Perhaps we should wait and see. He is the first one that has acted in anything like friendship towards Riina. It may be simple gratitude that she is feeling.”

The vixen shook her head. “No. It is not simple friendship, husband. Her behavior, her reaction when Bailey came in…I can’t promise not to do something rash if he hurts our child.”  
“Do you trust me?” Tapio asked in a change of tack. 

“Of course!”

“Then trust me when I tell you that Bailey will never willingly harm our daughter, physically, mentally or even where the heart is concerned.” He only nodded when his wife looked at him with a curious expression. “And trust your daughter, too. She isn’t a kit anymore, my beautiful wife,” he concluded with a kiss to the vixen’s paw. “She is growing into her own and we have to trust in her making the best decisions for her.

****************

Riina couldn’t help but smile as Bailey turned his aged pickup truck onto the paved road that passed by both her and the rabbit’s homes and led to the heart of Bunnyburrow. A soft giggle that she couldn’t restrain caused the young buck to look over at her before turning his eyes back to the road. “What?” he asked lightly, the vixen’s mood spreading as a smile crept across his short muzzle.

“I was hearing what you asked of Pappa,” the fox said.

The smile on Bailey’s face stopped as his eyes grew slightly larger and his ears dipped. “I should’ve asked you first! I…I’m sorry, Riina! I wasn’t…I mean, I thought that I needed to ask…”

The rabbit’s stammered explanation was halted by the feel of her paw settling on his and Bailey suddenly found himself completely incapable of anything resembling speech. “It was being very sweet of you,” the vixen said before leaning over to place a kiss on the buck’s cheek. “And very proper! Who was telling you to do this thing?”

Bailey’s mouth worked up and down for several seconds before he could actually answer, so caught off guard by the display of affection that his ears stood straight up, their tips folded over as they brushed the roof of the cab. “I, uh, called my sister’s husband and talked to him last night,” the buck admitted. “I…I want to do this right. I…I’ve never dated or…or had a girlfriend.” It felt as if his ears were going to burst into flames and with a frantic desperation in the suddenly too warm confines of the truck, he took the window lever in paw and cranked down the glass in an effort to get some cooler air. 

“I have never been dating, either,” the fox admitted. “I am being very glad that my first is to be you.” She felt the rabbit’s paw turn so his fingers could wrap with hers and the squeeze that he gave Riina made her heart beat faster. “Your sister’s husband is being correct in that it is good manners to be asking the parents first, though.”

They drove in silence for a few moments until the rabbit pulled up to the end of the driveway to his home, a familiar figure waiting amongst a group of similarly aged bunnies. “Sorry,” Bailey said with a grin. “A lot of my siblings wanted a ride to school today instead of walking. Personally I think it’s so the ones that didn’t get a chance to meet you last night can say hi. I hope you don’t mind.”

Riina laughed and scooted closer to the buck as Lori reached for the door handle, a wide grin on her face. “I am liking your family very much! This is a good thing!” the vixen exclaimed as the multihued bunny tossed her backpack into the truck before scrambling onto the seat and the others piled into the bed and helped others up.

“Hey!” Lori exclaimed as she threw her arms around the fox, just the hint of fresh dyes clinging to the bunny who’d retouched the black, pink and purple colors in her fur. She noticed the way the vixen and her brother were holding paws and grinned happily. “Wow! That was fast, but Bailey is a bunny, after all!”

Riina’s ears darkened, though there was no missing the pleased giggle that softly came from the fox. Bailey’s reaction was a bit more indignant. “Rabbit, please?” he asked in a tone of long suffering. “I’m a buck, you know.”

“And I’m your sister and don’t care, you know!” Lori teased. She winked at Riina. “Bailey hates being called a bunny. He thinks it’ll detract from his masculinity. Sort of like being called cute.”

The vixen gasped. “One is to never be calling a bunny or a rabbit cute! How very rude!”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you!” Lori commented as her brother got the truck rolling. “You know, I like the vest! Where’d you get it? That would look great with my black jeans!”

As the girls devolved into an animated discussion of haute couture, Bailey focused on the road, keeping his speed well within the posted Bunnyburrow limit, and trying fervently not to think about the way that the vixen’s hip rubbed up against his or the way her long, thick tail was draped over her lap and onto his as he fought the urge to touch it. It was a battle that took all of his self control, the snow white and silvery grey-blue fur looking so enticingly fluffy! More than once he found his paw inching towards the puffy brush. Fortunately the school came into view before the buck lost the battle, and as his siblings piled off the back and Lori opened her door, Riina leaned closer and whispered into his ear.

“You may be touching if you wish,” she breathed, her words caressing the rabbit’s ear like a summer breeze.

“A-a-are you s-sure?” he asked tremulously. Touching the tail of another was actually a very intimate thing and not something to be taken lightly. 

When the vixen simply nodded, a curious look on her face and her blue eyes seeming darker and richer than the day before, Bailey took in a breath and let his paw slip over the luxurious fur. It was even softer than it looked and his expression became one of sheer enjoyment as he stroked the fox’s fur along the lay. It wasn’t until Riina shivered and let out a sigh, her eyes growing yet darker as she looked at him with an intensity that caused his breath to hitch.

“Hey, guys? Not to interrupt what looks like ‘a moment’, but the bell’s gonna ring soon,” Lori told her brother and the vixen with a wicked grin. “Unless you think you might want to skip out and go somewhere more private than the student parking lot…”

Bailey and Riina reluctantly pulled themselves from the potential for trouble, each with flaming ears and got out, retrieving their backpacks from behind the seat back and acting far more subdued than moments before. When their paws seemed to meet accidentally they were both caught off guard when their fingers twined together almost of their own volition. As they looked into each other’s eyes the embarrassment was broken when both let out a laugh and with smiles on their faces entered the school building. As it was, the buck was unprepared when Riina’s tail went from furious wagging as a demonstration of her emotional state to wrapping around his lower back as they walked together.

Things couldn’t be any more perfect as far as Bailey was concerned and felt as if he were walking not on the ground but clouds and sunshine itself.

“Oh! I wanted to ask you something!” Bailey said as he reentered the real world with a pang of regret.

“I am thinking that I have already answered yes,” Riina told the buck in a light tone with a merry twinkle to her eyes as she leaned closer and let her shoulder rub against the rabbit’s, a move made easier as they were both the same height, ears not withstanding.

“Huh?” Bailey replied before laughing. “Oh! Um, actually it’s something other than that! Even though I’m beyond happy that you did say yes. But, uh, my gymnastics meet is this Saturday morning and I was hoping that you…I mean…”

“He wants you to come so you can cheer him on,” Lori said as she stepped up to the vixen’s other side with a smarmy grin.

“Of course I will be coming to cheer for you!” Riina said before giving the rabbit a coy smile. “I must be supportive for my boyfriend, yes?”

“Cool! And then, uh, some of us were going to go to the lake. The weekend’s supposed to be really good weather wise. A picnic, camping out.” His ears jerked up as he realized what it might sound like he was proposing. “Not together! I mean, the guys would have their tents and the girls would have their own as well!”

With another laugh Riina promised that she’d ask her parents before the weekend.

Lori simply rolled her eyes as she made an indelicate sound at the twitterpated look her brother gave his foxy girlfriend. “You two are going to make me give up sugar, I swear.” If she hadn’t opened the door, both Bailey and Riina would’ve walked into it and the bunny had to shake her head theatrically. “Okay. Hurry up and kiss or…whatever. Riina and I need to get to homeroom.”

Instead of kissing, the young couple simply nuzzled each other quickly before the bunny hauled the vixen in the opposite direction that her brother had to take, Lori linking her arm with the fox and leaning close to talk while the rabbit headed towards his homeroom, a dazed and happy expression on his face.

******************

“You have got to be kidding me!” Fiona Scampert exclaimed breathily where she and other does from the school’s volleyball team stood together along a row of lockers. “Look!” she husked with astonishment. “Is that…Bailey?!?”

“Why’s he with her?” another of the bunnies asked in words tinged with revulsion.

“They can’t be dating, can they?”

Fiona made a face of disgust before her expression turned to one of malicious satisfaction as she swiveled her head to regard her main competition for position of head bunny, a sense of satisfaction filling her at Tara Lagontelli’s look of shock.

“No way,” Tara breathed as she almost dropped her books. “He…he can’t be with a…with a pred! There’s just no way!”

Fiona’s smirk grew more pronounced, though when she spoke, her voice was tinged with a sort of chilly satisfaction. “Looks like it to me. Oh! Look at her wrap her tail around him!” The white and russet doe elbowed her peer. “Still in denial after that?” She turned to the other bunnies. “Then again, Bailey is a Hopps,” she declared, particular emphasis on certain words. “We all know that they’re turning into a bunch of deviants.” With a nod Fiona directed the more submissive members of the coterie down the hall leaving a stunned Tara in their wake.

As far as the all white doe was concerned, the situation was one that couldn’t be allowed to go on. She’d set her eyes on the strapping buck and there was no way that Tara was going to be thwarted. With a huff of indignation, the bunny began to formulate some manner that she could get Bailey Hopps to realize that he was making a serious mistake. No pred could ever be for the rabbit what she could be. And foxes were never anything more than trouble. Bailey had to be made aware of what everyone else knew to be true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And trouble on the horizon... Haters will always wreck things, right?


	4. Chapter 4

Stu Hopps whistled one of his favorite tunes as he shut the door to his fairly new truck, the crops over the past few years having brought in enough that he could finally retire his old beat-to-heck pickup and pass it on to one of his sons, and strolled into the diner he liked to while away a portion of his morning, talking to neighbors and catching up on town gossip. In that regard, the hearsay of other Burrow residents was one of the old buck’s true weaknesses, a point that Bonnie teased him to no end about. “Morning, Vera!” the rabbit said as he let the door swing shut behind him, Hank’s Hash House like a home away from home to the patriarch of the Hopps clan and this Thursday was no different.

“Go on and take your spot,” the matronly bunny in pink waitress outfit complete with white apron said with a curious expression. “You wantin’ the usual?”

“Yup!” Stu replied as he slipped into a booth that had other Burrows farmers sitting at it. “When it comes to my second breakfast you know I gotta have those buckwheat pancakes you do so well!” He looked at the other farmers at the table, finally noticing the looks that he was getting, his cronies regarding him the way they did ol’ McBucky the year he wound up with an allergic reaction to some new crops and lost most of his fur. “What’s goin’ on, guys?”

One of Stu’s oldest acquaintances dropped his gaze down to the cooling tea in his cup. Alvin Stumps was one of the more levelheaded rabbits in the whole of the Tri-Burrow region and he and the head of the Hopps clan enjoyed their yearly competition of trying to provide the best produce for the Bunnyburrow Carrot Days festival in the fall. “Nothin’ much,” the rabbit drawled before casting a curious glance at Stuart. “But words goin’ ‘round that some peculiar things’re goin’ on with a number of yer young’ins.”

His ears twitching in curiosity at the possibility there was something he was unaware of, Stu leaned back as a white porcelain cup was set before him and he absently picked up the creamer and poured a healthy dollop in. “What kind of peculiar things?” the rabbit asked as he grabbed the sugar next and used his spoon to measure out a dose of the white crystals before dumping it in and stirring it.

Alvin eyed the other rabbit bucks at the table, Jimmy Tailson and Hank Coney. “Word is that Judy ain’t being the only one what’s got some weird notions, though with her runnin’ off to the city explains some of that. We heard tell that there boy you got what’s studyin’ to be a doctor is hangin’ round with that coyote that works over at Pablo’s.”

“That’s no secret,” Stu said as he took a tentative sip from his cup, calming the ripple of irritation at the mention of Judy before swinging his attention back to the subject of Jeremy and Celeste. “They’re pretty good friends and she’s a right sweet enough girl. Bit on the shy side, but there’s no crime against that.”

“Mayhaps,” Alvin grunted. “Now they’s talk of your boy, Bailey, hangin’ about with that new fox girl. The one what her ma and pa done bought the old Jenkins’ orchard and actin’ all lovey like with her.”

Stu felt his stomach clenching as the anger began to simmer in his gut again. “And?” the rabbit said, his single word hard and brittle sounding, almost as if it were a challenge. One paw was wrapped around his mug, his knuckles actually popping with the force of his grip, the other was under the table and clenched into a tight fist and Stu fought the sudden urge to grit his teeth.

“And? Really Stu?” Alvin groused. “And it ain’t natural like! What with yer kits shackin’ up with foxes and coyotes and such! The rest of us done thought the Hopps family were good, upstandin’ rabbits! Turns out y’all ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of pred-baiters! We ain’t sure we want that kinda thing goin’ on here in Bunnyburrow!”

With a deep breath that he let out slowly, Stu lifted his cup and took a long sip before setting it back on the table and slid it away with two fingers before adjusting the bib of his overalls. Then after fixing his ever present cap, Stu stood and pulled out a couple of dollars and set them on the table. “Cancel those pancakes, Vera. I found I don’t have much of an appetite when I have to sit with a bunch of no account, no class bigots.”

The bunny behind the counter almost dropped the glass coffee carafe she’d been ready to bring to the table, her eyes wide as her ears pressed back against her head, her nose twitching furiously in apprehension.

As Stu turned for the door Alvin Stump stood so suddenly that he caused the cups still on the table to slosh their contents over the aged Formica surface. “Watch who you callin’ no class there, Hopps!” the rangy rabbit screamed as he shook one balled up paw at his one-time friend. “Just ‘cause I ain’t letting my kith an’ kin go ‘round fornicatin’ with no flea-bitten preds don’ give you no right to be callin’ proper rabbits things!”

“No,” Stu agreed. “You got your kits so beat down that they won’t even take a dump without your say so. As for my get seeing predators…well, I’ll take that over having a whole passel of daughters that like to act like the village bicycles where everybody and their brother gets at least one ride.”

“That’s it, you mangy pred-lovin’ baiter!” Alvin raged. “I ain’t gonna take that from you!”

As soon as the words left his mouth Stu knew he was in the wrong, but it was as if something in him just had to escalate the situation in a way that he forbade his children of ever doing. “Nah. You ain’t gotta take, your sisters sure did all that back when we were all in school. Over and over again.” The Hopps patriarch was already outside when Alvin Stumps made his way out of the diner, spilling the other two bucks on the floor in his haste. “You really don’t want to do this, Alvin,” Stu warned with an upraised paw as he stood his ground.

“You ain’t gonna badmouth my family name an’ git ‘way with it!”

“But you can badmouth mine and it’s okay?” Hopps inquired with a hardening of his rich, light brown eyes. “Then you ain’t nothing but a hypocrite, Alvin Stumps, plain and simple.”

The rangy buck was warned two more times to back off but didn’t listen and came at Stu with murder in his muddy colored lapine eyes. While thinner to the point of almost looking scrawny, Alvin was fast while Stu, rather thick and a tad shorter, showed that his mass was well earned muscle and bulk built from decades of hard work. As the other drew close, Stu simply put a paw on him and redirected the wild charge as he stepped out of the way. The same went for the second attack. 

The third saw the other two bucks exploding from the diner’s front door and joining in as they prepared to give Hopps the beating of his life. Tailson and Coney each grabbed an arm and shook the large buck upright as Alvin came in with his fist, the blow connecting with Stu’s gut and bending him over. “What now, Stu?” Stumps cackled evilly. “Them preds y’all’s family be humpin’ gonna help you out now?” he inquired with another punch to the other rabbit’s head. “Where they at now, Stu?” the thin buck continued to taunt. He kicked his once-friend in the side. “Where all them foxes yer kids is humpin’? You got NO ONE!”

Then Alvin let go with a yelp of fear and surprise as he was jerked backwards before being slammed to the ground, his arms twisted savagely behind his back. “Oh, I think there are a few of us lurking about,” Nick Wild said calmly as he cuffed the rangy rabbit buck, the other pair of rabbits dropping the head of the Hopps family before bolting. “You okay, Dad?” he asked, concern darkening his emerald eyes. 

“Take more’n that to knock down a Hopps,” Stu wheezed as he was let go, sitting on the ground on all fours trying to get his breath.

“Got two runners, Carrots,” the red fox said casually as the pair that had been holding Stu bolted.

“Pfff! As if they could outrun me,” Judy said in a deprecating tone. Her first concern was her father. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Jude the Dude. Go get ‘em. Show your old Dad what you can do!”

With an almost maniacal grin of glee, Judy launched herself at the fleeing pair, catching both before they could trundle to the edge of the diner’s parking lot. With a single motion she cuffed both of the bucks together, keeping a tight hold on the chain linking the alloy steel bracelets. 

“Sweet cheese and crackers…” Stu breathed. “She really is fast!”

“You should see her run down a cheetah,” Nick commented with a look of complete enamored pride. “Now then,” the fox said as he hauled the rabbit in his custody up to his feet and pulled out the badge that fit into a wallet he always carried when not in uniform. “I’m going to guess this isn’t exactly your debut at this sort of thing,” Nick asked before dropping into an exaggerated Bunnyburrow twang, “now iz it, Bowoy?” When the buck only bared his teeth at the fox, Nick snickered in surprise. “Oh, hey. Don’t worry. You can get those choppers cleaned at the prison’s dental office. What is that between them? Spinach? Jeez. Looks like it’s been there since nineteen seventy eight, but they can take care of that, too.

“Now then, I’m sure that you know Zootopia has jurisdiction even way out here, but just so we keep things on the up-and-up, you, my dear…fragrant…really smelly…whatever you are…well, you’re under arrest! You see, that’s my Dad-in-law you were thumping on, and we foxes…well, we take family sort of serious like. Isn’t that right, Carrots?”

“Very,” she said, the tone of that single word from the bunny dropping the immediate temperature a few degrees as she glared at rabbits she’d known her whole life.

“Assault and battery, is just the starter. There’s also aggravated assault, oh,” Nick said as he pointed at the two rabbits Judy had caught, “that goes for you two as well. Three on one, really!” he exclaimed in feigned exasperation. Alvin Stupmps then spit on the fox, Nick’s expression growing cold as Judy gasped in shock at the defiant gesture. “And now we can tack on assaulting a police officer. This just isn’t your day, is it?”

Judy slipped her phone back into her pocket one pawed while still holding onto the other two lapines. “Constable’s on his way. Should be here in about ten minutes.”

“Okay, kits…”

“Ain’t no ‘kits’!” Stumps shouted vehemently as he tried to shake loose from the fox.

Nick subdued the smaller buck by lifting his arms until the rabbit subsided in his defiant struggles. “If you wouldn’t act like a bunch of playground kits, I wouldn’t address you as such. Now settle down.” All three were hauled to a bench that sat outside the diner and zip-tied to the wood and wrought iron seat. He and Judy then went to check on Stu.  
“Are you sure you’re all right, Daddy?” Judy asked in concern as she put a paw on her father’s arm to help him.

“Oh, I’m fine, Judy. It’s no worse than the hits I used to take playing football!”

“That was a couple of decades ago,” the bunny pointed out.

The buck regarded his daughter with a pained expression. “Ouch, Jude. That one stung. I think you’ve been hanging around Nick a little too long!” he told her with a smile until the cut on his lip made him wince. “Never mind. I think that one hurt more…”

The Bunnyburrow Constable showed up, a rather imposing looking moose whose jowls had started to go grey with age. He took the statements of everyone involved, even Vera inside the diner, and hustled the three rabbits into his SUV.

“We’ll be out ‘fore suppertime, Stu!” Alvin growled. “Then y’all better watch out! We gonna git ya! We gonna git all y’all!”

“Alvin, will you please shut up?” Constable Oliver Bullford said, his eyes squinting with the beginnings of a headache that it was far too early for. “You’re being recorded, you idiot. And you just threatened ZPD officers. That means you ain’t gonna see Judge Marion. You’ll be goin’ to trial in the city!”

All of the vinegar drained from the rabbit as his expression melted from one of smugness to stupification as the moose slammed the door. He then turned to Stu who was being tended to by his daughter and son-in-law. 

“Stu? You wanna tell me just what in alfalfa is going on? You and ol’ Stumps been friends for a long time to have a fallin’ out that came to blows,” Bullford inquired with a concerned frown.

“He doesn’t like the fact that some of my kits have found them some good mates that aren’t rabbits. It got a little heated,” Stuart informed the Bunnyburrow law enforcement official. 

The moose shook his head. “Well, Judy here has never been a conformist,” he said with a wink. “She was gonna go her own way no matter what, and the world’s a better place for it. Was he talking about Jeremy and that ‘yote over at Pablo’s tractor shop?”

Stu nodded. “That and the fact that Bailey has gone and gotten all smitten with the daughter of the foxes that took over the orchard the Jenkins used to run. They’re good mammals, Oliver. If that’s what Bailey wants’ then by golly, I’m behind him a hundred percent!”

“Whoa!” the moose said as he held up his hooves with a wide grin. “I’m not going to dispute you, Stu. Heck, times they is a changin’! And if you ask me it’s about nigh time, too.” He lowered his arms and hitched up his equipment belt so it rested under the slight paunch that had come with age and glanced back at the SUV decked out in green and brown with the seal of Bunnyburrow emblazoned on the door and the word CONSTABLE in bright reflective white letters on the back. “Welp…better get these reprobates booked and settled until ZPD can send someone out for them. It’s always good to see you again, Judy,” he said offering the bunny a hoof. “You, too, Nick. You two get time again, we could sure use another training visit by the city’s finest!”

As the moose pulled away, heading to the small building that served as the local law enforcement office, the bunny turned again to her father. “Nick? Would you mind heading to the burrow? I want to get Dad checked out at the medical center.”

“I don’t need to get checked out!’ Stu persisted until Nick placed a paw on the rabbit’s shoulder.

“Dad, you and I both know she’s going to win. Just go. I’ll tell Mom what happened. If you play this right you can milk it to get some of your favorite stuff for supper. And dessert. Can’t forget about dessert, can we?”

Stu watched as the fox gave him a sly wink and tried to hide the grin that started to form on his short muzzle. “Y’know, maybe getting looked at wouldn’t be a bad idea…” he finally relented. “C’mon, Jude. You can even drive the new truck!” Stu said as he got into the passenger side.

“You are a sly fox!” Judy commented as she kissed her husband, the bit of affection a little more difficult due to the smile they both wore. “Rotten to the core sometimes, but sly!”

*****************

Bailey had barely made it through the door when he began shouting, his topaz colored eyes filled with dread and worry. “Dad?!? DAD?!?” He yelled, slinging his backpack against the wall and dashing further into the burrow, Riina following behind with Lori, both females just as concerned. They followed the young rabbit until all of them emerged in one of the living rooms that was for Hopps family members over the age of fifteen. “I heard at school that you got jumped and that it was because of me!” Bailey husked as he dropped to his knees next to the chair his father reclined in.

“What?” Stu asked, his eyes going wide in shock. “I got into a tussle because of a buck I thought was a friend turned out to be a hater and a pred bigot, Bailey!” the older rabbit said as he took his son’s paw. “Nothing more than that and I’m okay. A little sore, but I’m all right!”

“Because of me…” the younger buck said as his eyes filled. “Because I’m with Riina.”

Stu’s expression hardened. “Now you stop that, right there!” the head of the Hopps family told his kit in a tone of voice he rarely used when talking to his children. “I don’t care if you date a bunny, weasel, lion, bear or fox! You’ve got to do what feels right to you, son! You got to listen to the sound of your heart, and if Riina there makes it sing, well then that’s all that matters!”

Lori, watching the scene play out, took Riina’s paw and physically pulled her towards the father and son, positioning the vixen next to her brother, backing up a step as Stu glanced up and graced the platinum fox with a wide smile as he beckoned her closer and twisted so that he could put a paw on either of the young mammals’ shoulders.

“I used to be like Alvin Stumps and the others. Then I learned better. It wasn’t an easy lesson either! I know that things aren’t this or that in the world anymore and never were, but what’s more important is that my kits are happy,” Stu said with a nod as he glanced at where Nick and Judy stood. “All of them, and that means the ones that’re rabbits and the ones that aren’t. And I’ll go rounds with any mammal that says different!”

Bailey pawed at the moisture in his eyes as he nodded, his mouth twisting as he tried to keep his emotions in check then gave in and threw his arms around his father, sucking in a deep, shuddering breath when Stu hugged him right back. As the two finally separated Stu and Bailey couldn’t look more like father and son as their eyes leaked out tears that escaped their most valiant efforts to restrain.

“I’m proud of you, boy,” Stu said with a hitch to his voice. “As proud of you as I am Judy and all of your brothers and sisters. If Riina makes you happy, then I’m happy.” He smiled and tried to emulate one of Nick’s smarmy grins. “Never mind that she’s just cute as a button!”

“Dad!” the younger buck admonished with a laugh as he wiped at his face.

“Well, she is!” He shifted a little with a paw to his side and a small wince. “Now, you go get your homework done. I don’t want any distractions this Saturday at the meet.” He turned towards the platinum fox. “Oh, and Riina? Your parents are joining us for supper tonight, so it might be best if you and Bailey actually did homework instead of sneaking kisses, okay?”

The vixen’s ears burst into a vibrant pink as she lowered her head. “Yes, Stu,” the fox breathed, though the slight smile on her muzzle told everyone else in the room that was exactly what was going to happen.

“Right, now. Off with you. Get done so you can get to the kitchen and help your mother.” As the room cleared out of teenagers, the buck settled into the chair with a glass of chilled carrot and apple juice next to him. “Yep. Not gonna ever hear me complain about my kits. No, Siree!”

You two talk,” Judy said as she stood from where she and Nick had been sitting and holding paws. “I’m going to go help Mom.”

Stu nodded and relaxed further into his favorite chair before cracking an eye to make sure his daughter was gone before looking at Nick. “You know, come to think of it, I am mighty glad that you and Jude the Dude showed up when you did. The question I got is why?” the rabbit asked with his ears spread in an inquisitive V.

“Oh. That’s simple,” Nick said as he sipped his own tumbler of juice. “Bailey invited us to come see the gymnastics meet. That and we’ve got some time off and wanted to get out of the city for a bit, and Judy said if she had to miss one more Carrots Days Festival someone was going to pay, so here we are. I hope it’s no trouble.”

Stu snorted. “Really, Nick? In this house space is never an issue!” He let his eyes close, a little more sore than he thought he’d be, but the X-rays that had been taken had shown that there was no lingering damage save a few bruises to both body and ego. “Nick? Am I seeing with my boy and his vixen what I think is there?”

The red fox shrugged. “I think it’s still a little too early to tell-“

“Carrot sticks!” the buck exclaimed with a grin. “How long before you knew Judy was the one for you?”

“Um, this isn’t about me, now is it? Besides-“

“Son,” the buck admonished sternly with a raised eyebrow.

“About a day,” the fox admitted. Nick took a large swig and held the cup between his paws. “Dad, it’s not a magic power that foxes have. The potential is there, but…” he shrugged and left his sentence hanging. “If I were to lay any money on it, I’d have to say the odds aren’t high enough either way.”

The rabbit frowned at this. “Darn it. I like that girl. She’s good for Bailey and a real sweetie. I like her parents just fine as well.”

Nick chortled. “They’ve only been dating, what…a week?” the red fox asked. “Give it time, Dad.”

“Don’t wanna,” Stu groused in reply as he crossed his arms over his chest.

*****************

Dinner went well, and Bailey had watched as the Kettu’s seemed to fit right in with his family as they all ate and visited, a good portion of the conversation that had actually taken place revolving around Nick and Judy, something that even interested Riina. For some reason it still surprised the buck that others had heard of his sister and her husband for what they did for Zootopia, even though more than a year and a half had passed since the Night Howler incident. After supper his younger siblings were corralled into kitchen duty or putting the wee kits to bed while the older Hopps’ and the Kettu’s retired to the adults’ only living room for dessert and coffee, the topper to supper being a slew of apple and strawberry pies that Ilona Kettu had baked using fruit from their recently acquired orchard.

Eventually the evening wore down with everyone making their good-byes while Riina pulled Bailey into a small nook, her paws holding his as she shifted from foot to foot. “I am needing to know something…” the vixen began, unable to look up from where she regarded the buck’s paws that held hers. “Because of today…with what happened to your Pappa…are we…”

The question that Bailey didn’t let her voice was understandable after the events of the day, but kept her from giving voice to her fears by leaning in and pressing his muzzle to hers, just letting the simple, chaste contact quell Riina’s fears and worries. Bailey felt the tension flow from her before becoming lost in the contact. Before he was even aware of it their arms were around each other and the kiss became a little more risqué.

“Mmmm!” Riina moaned as they forced themselves apart. “I…yes. That answers my questions very nicely,” she breathed, actually panting slightly as her tail churned the air behind her.

“I haven’t asked you if it helped yet,” the buck quipped with a smile. “But that is my answer. We’re together and that’s all that matters.” Bailey swallowed hard and tried to speak, each attempt failing before he was able to put his thoughts into words. “Riina, I know we haven’t really known each other long, but sometimes when I’m lying awake at night it’s like…well…like I’ve known you my whole life! It’s incredible and scary and I wouldn’t change it for the world!”

The vixen nodded. “I am feeling this way as well. It is almost seeming like magic, yes?”

“Magic…” the rabbit whispered, once more losing himself in the dark, sapphire orbs of the fox. “It does. I mean, I just know when you want something, or if you like something I’ve done…magic is a good way to describe it…”

Bailey had lifted his paw and touched the vixen’s muzzle, tracing the lines of its tapered shape, her thin black lips, reveling in the feel of her fur that was so much softer than it looked once he got past the long guard hairs that covered her entire body. He liked the tufts of fur at her cheeks and the way the white gave way to the bluish-grey of her patterns and not for the first time wondered just how far the designs went.

“Riina! It is time to go, mansikka!” her mother called from the entry foyer.

“I will be seeing you in the morning?” the vixen asked. “Would you be liking to have breakfast with us again?”

“That sounds great!” the rabbit agreed before they shared one more kiss, while less intense it was just as warm and tender as the previous and he took her paw to lead her to the door. “By the way, what does that mean? Mansikka? Your parents call you that all the time.”

Riina giggled as her ears pinked up in a blush. “It is being a strawberry. It is my favorite fruit! I am just not able to be getting enough of them when they are in season!”

“So, with Nick it’s blueberries, and you like strawberries,” the buck said with a grin. “It’s a good thing I’m more partial to strawberries, too, then!”

The young mammals made it to the door where both sets of parents, Judy and Nick stood, all of them glancing at the two teenagers. Noses wiggled and a few eyebrows shot up, but no one said a thing as they finally let go of the paws they held. Bonnie shut the door. “Come on, old buck,” she said to her husband with a caring but still stern expression. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“Bonnie,” Stu admonished as he spoke out of the side of his short muzzle. “Not in front of the kits…”

The matronly doe put her paws on her hips with shocked expression before laughing at the joke that her husband was able to slip in. “Right. Once we give you the medication the doctor sent home the only thing you’ll be doing is sawing logs!” She took his arm and steered him in the direction of their room, unaware of the glance backwards at Nick accompanied by a wink and thumbs-up gesture.

“Sweet cheese and crackers,” Judy lamented as she dropped her face into one paw and shook her head. “What have you done to my Dad, Nick?”

“You can’t pin this one on me, Carrots,” the red fox said with a smug grin. “With all your siblings Dad knew what to do long before he met me!” Nick did watch as Bailey slipped past and headed towards one of the other doors to go outside and stepped over to Judy and planted a kiss on her head between her ears. “I’m going to go have a word with Bailey, if that’s okay. I think the kid could use some unbiased tall-talk.”

The bunny nodded with a soft smile. “Okay. But don’t take too long. You have an appointment waiting with your very own massage specialist and she gets a little upset when you’re late for an appointment!”

“Perish the thought,” Nick said with another kiss before heading the same direction as Bailey.

The buck was sitting on one of a series of tire swings on the huge solitary oak tree that was just out of range of the pool of light cast from the house. He was spinning idly, his toe pads barely touching the ends of the closely mowed grass, a look of consternation on his face. While Nick had little trouble seeing the rabbit after his eyes adjusted to the gloom, Bailey was almost blind, his lapine eyes not really suited for darkness.

“Penny for your thoughts, Squirt,” the fox said easily as he took a perch on one of the other swings.

“Huh?!?” Bailey grunted before relaxing as he recognize the voice of his brother-in-law. “Oh…just going over today in my head. I guess it’s easy to tell I’m a bit cheesed off at what happened to Dad.”

Nick snorted. “Yeah. I could tell, believe it or not.” Unlike the young buck, his feet sat firmly on the ground so the fox swung slightly by flexing his feet. “And I can’t say I blame you.”

“Nick? Do…do you and Judy have to put up with that stuff in Zootopia? I mean, the haters and stuff for loving each other?”

He could hear the worry in the rabbit’s voice, but Bailey was old enough to know the truth, and also smart enough to pick up on a lie. “Almost everyday. Sometimes it’s not so bad. Maybe a couple of dirty looks or mumbled insults. Other days some mammals threaten to get violent about it.”

Nick watched as the buck turned towards him, the horrified expression on his face clear despite the darkness. “How do you deal with it?”

“Oh, that’s the easy part,” the fox chortled. “Your sister is the brightest thing in my life and with her I know I can face anything. It’s more than just that, though. I know that she has my back, and I have hers, more than just at work, but in all things. That and we’ve learned to have fun with those that would tear us down.” His grin was so wide that his teeth were visible from the weak yellow light spilling from the house. “Mammals that try and use their beliefs to hurt us can’t when we’re laughing at them. A joke is a powerful tool at the proper time. Just like a smile or a friendly paw. But you already know this, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Bailey said, even if the fox couldn’t see him the smile was clear in his voice. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone, Nick. It…it’s great, but it also scares me.” He spun his swing a little. “Am I…am I broken somehow?”

“No, Bailey. You aren’t broken. Just…well, just different. Like me. Like your sister. We’re just different.”

“But,” the buck began as he thought about Nick’s words. “It’s not wrong that I feel this way?”

“Not in the slightest. She’s a lovely vixen and you are a very lucky buck.”

“Yeah,” Bailey agreed, again his smile evident in his tone. “I really am!”

“Don’t worry about what others think, Bailey. Focus on how she makes you feel, how you make her feel, and let the rest of the world accept it or not, but don’t ever let anyone else tell you that you can’t. They tried that with your sister and it didn’t work. Mammals tried it with us when we became a couple and they were wrong. The only one that can make the decision if what you do is good or not is you.” 

The red fox stood and turned to head back to the house before the buck stopped him. “Hey, Nick? Thanks!” the rabbit said as he launched himself at the fox and wrapped his arms around his brother-in-law in unbridled gratitude.

“No problem, Squirt. Just make sure you kick tail on Saturday, all right?”

Bailey nodded. “I can do that. I’ve got some great folk cheering me on in my corner!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really a whole lot to say. Well, maybe that I hope everyone's having fun!
> 
> Oh. I guess I made one particular reader happy as he always loves it when a title drop gets squeezed in! ;)


	5. Chapter 5

The gymnasium to West Bunnyburrow High School was completely packed with a great many mammals standing where they could see the competition getting ready to take place. There were reporters from the Bunnyburrow Morning Post as well as a photographer who would be putting together the article for the morning edition as Bailey Hopps and his classmates took on Deer Brooke High School in the last round to claim the State Championship. If they scored high enough, it was off to Nationals. This competition was so important that there were even journalists and photographers from the two major Zootopia newspapers and several mammals that ran sports blogs.

The coaches were giving the different kits last minute pointers and pep-talks, doing what they could to alleviate the high nerves of their team. Bailey wasn’t really paying attention to what was being said as he sat on the bench and absently adjusted the supports on his wrists as his mind was focused on the sequence of his routine. Fortunately he only had to compete in two events, even though he’d assured his coaches he could do three. Competition rules had stated that the gymnasts were allowed two routines only. As such, the rabbit would be performing a floor routine first followed by the high bar to give him a chance to rest between performances.

“Looks like your whole clan showed up!” Garret said with a chuckle at the middle bleacher section that was dominated by his friend’s parents and a number of siblings with several foxes who were watching the meet avidly.

Bailey glanced up, pulled from his thoughts, the sight of so much support causing his ears to warm in a blush, especially when he saw a particular platinum fox vixen that had eyes only for him. “Yeah. My sister and her husband even came all the way from Zootopia to watch,” the buck agreed, giving his personal audience a wave that sent the younger siblings into a jubilant frenzy of grins and flailing arms as they jumped up and down or thumped their feet.

The ram snorted in amusement. “Well, at least today you get to do the routines you’ve trained for. I still can’t believe you actually took Peggy up on that dare to work the unevens,” Garret said with a nudge to the rabbit. “If you’d messed up you mighta been singing soprano!”

It was Bailey’s turn to snort in mirth. “Hey, the quickest way to get a Hopps to do something is to tell us we can’t do something! I think it’s a genetic trait.” He looked up to where one of the girls from Deer Brooke, a young jaguar, was just starting her run on the mentioned uneven parallel bars and the energy of her spinning drew everyone’s attention. “I think that’s one of the reasons that we-oh, NO!” the rabbit said as he watched with a sort of sickening horror as the jaguar finished a spin and pirouette that launched her at the higher bar, though her timing was a little off and she missed, sailing past her target in a flailing arc before landing right at the edge of the mats. The crowd, also seeing the problem went oddly silent so that when the girl hit the floor, the sound of bones breaking could be heard by everyone.

“Oh, sheep dip!” Garret muttered as he and every other gymnast stood.

It never seemed to fail in that there was at least one injury during every meet. No one ever wanted that, all of them understanding the work involved in getting where they were and that each rival might someday also be a teammate. The jaguar girl let out a yowl of pain, her paws clutched around her ankle as coaches and paramedics rushed out to where she’d impacted the uncovered floor, Bailey and Garret knew that there was a good chance that they’d just seen a career-ending injury. The crowd around her prevented anyone from seeing what was going on, but after a few minutes it was clear that the jaguar was done when one of the paramedics, a large mule deer, hoisted the girl up in his arms, not even waiting for a stretcher, and carried the jaguar out at a brisk walk, the girl holding on with her face buried in the EMT’s neck and shoulder while she visibly sobbed.

It wasn’t lost on Bailey or the ram next to him that the wrap on the feline’s ankle was spotted with red.

“You’ll be back!” the rabbit called out before bringing his paws together, other teammates doing the same, even though he knew that he had just seen the end of the jaguars aspirations of being a professional gymnast. It was one of the few things that he and the others could do to show solidarity with the girl.

In the stands the Hopps family and the Kettus watched with tense attention to the rest of the girls’ portion of the meet, though there weren’t any more injuries as both teams tried to get past the accident. Shaking his head, Tapio turned to Stu and Bonnie.

“Is this truly being so dangerous a sport?” the silver fox asked with a wide-eyed expression of shock, his ears flipped downwards.

Stu nodded solemnly. “It can be. The kits miscalculate in the slightest and they can get hurt all too easily. Heck, Bailey’s good, but sometimes he just scares the dickens outta me! More than once I had to see what he did after someone recorded it ‘cause I can’t watch while it’s happening.”

Judy was shaking her head in surprise, her amethyst eyes as large as they could get. “And I thought Academy training was hard! This is insane!” She snickered after a moment and nudged Nick with her shoulder. “I wonder what they could do with Ursula’s ice wall on the Tundratown portion of the course?”

The red fox only raised an eyebrow as he smirked slightly. “What wall? There is no wall,” he said, using a line from The Mawtrix.

“The boys’ are next,” Bonnie muttered, her paw grabbing hold of her husband’s and convulsed with worry to the point Stu thought his fingers were in a vice but endured the discomfort stoically. She continued muttering and it took a moment for the other mammals around her to realize that she was praying, her brows pinched ever so slightly between her soft eyes.

Bailey didn’t glance back up at his family as he was again going through his routine in his head and needed to focus. Two spots before his name was called the buck stood and unzipped his thin windbreaker and let it drop on the bench before running through a series of stretches and warm-ups. It took some effort to clear his mind of distractions, but several deep breaths followed by rapid breathing to saturate his blood with oxygen helped him to enter the state of awareness that he needed. He’d once heard on some TV program that what Bailey was striving for was something called Zen, where action and thought were one in the confines of the perfect moment. Without an actual teacher to help him with understanding precisely where his consciousness was, it seemed as good a definition for him as anything else he’d heard. The buck simply called it being in the zone.

Then the judges called his name and there was no time for anything other than pushing his body that he’d spent so many years training and conditioning.

Bailey let out one slow breath and strode to the edge of the large floor mat that was a combination of carpet over padding over a series of spring supported platforms secured together. The buck mentally forced all of the tenseness from his muscles before stepping up and with legs and feet together held his arms up, paws curled lightly into fists. Then he was running, his naturally developed leg muscles working flawlessly, his motions fluid and almost sensual. Just before reaching the center of the large area he tensed his left leg a little more and launched himself up and forward, leaning his upper body forward in a controlled dive until his now splayed paws encountered the floor and he began a series of front flips.

One… 

Thump-thump of paws then feet.

Two…

A repeat of the pattern paws-feet, Bailey feeling the impact each time he connected with the surface and used inertia and the springy nature of the platform to maintain the flips and forward velocity.

Three!

Using his incredibly powerful legs and feet, Bailey shot into the air, keeping his body straight as he torqued himself into a three-one spin while flipping end over end, seeing what he was doing in the confines of his brain until his pads smacked down on the end of the maneuver, his arms flying up in straight extensions from his shoulders. There wasn’t even the slightest of skids from the sudden arrest of motion and inertia. Bailey then leaned forward, snapping his arms down to catch himself at the last possible moment in the lunge that he held for a mental count of two. An imperceptible surge of his thighs sent him forward as he tucked into a roll.

At the end of the forward roll, Bailey’s feet barely coming into contact with the carpeted surface, he launched upwards into a tucked three hundred and sixty degree spin with a half revolution of his body so that he was turning on two axis points until he touched the matt and did it again, then a third time, but rotating the opposite direction a full revolution so that he was again facing the center of the floor area.

Without even pausing for breath, Bailey exploded forward with a speed that, had he been able to hear her, made his sister Judy swear in complete astonishment. Before he reached the center again, the buck snapped out a series of flips, one after the other…

One…

Two…

Three…

Four…

FIVE!

On the fifth revolution Bailey again leapt into a high arc flipping end over end with his body straight and rigid while his ears acted like streamers from the centripetal force, one arm folded across his abdomen, the other across his lower back until his feet came down hard on the floor right at the border. He was facing the opposite corner once more and threw his arms out, then up.

The crowd exploded into cheering and applause that the rabbit was vaguely aware of with the adrenaline that surged through him, the high of the performance giving way to relief that he hadn’t screwed up. Bailey gave it a moment, surreptitiously testing his muscles before he lowered his arms and trotted to back to the bench, casting a glance up at his family along with a shining grin, then a wave at the platinum fox vixen who was on her feet and clapping her paws wildly, her expression one of beaming delight and pride that was mirrored on Bonnie Hopps.

“Dude!” Garret exclaimed as the larger ram caught the rabbit in a fierce embrace. “That was extreme! The end…that...that was…just flippin’ WOW!”

“Glad you liked it,” Bailey told his friend casually, a glance at the coach and the slight nod as the older rabbit was still clapping softly almost the same as the enthusiastic cheering from the younger buck’s family and friends in the stands. Both forms of congratulations causing him to grin broadly. “Where’s my water bottle? I’m feeling powerful dry.”

Garret picked up the bottle and tossed it underhand, the buck plucking it out of the air before drinking deep. He plopped down on the bench as the adrenaline that had filled him moments before started to decrease and felt his legs tremble slightly in conjunction with the buildup of lactic acids in his muscles. He could only afford to sit for a moment before starting a series of cool down and stretching exercises as he still had one more routine to go through. Fortunately the girls had to finish the rest of their routines. The rotation of competition was set so that no one was pushed past their limits and had adequate times to recover.

As Bailey glanced at the stands, he saw his family and the Kettus wave and smile, no shortage of thumbs-up gestures being sent his way from beaming faces. The one that got to him the most was the smiling visage of Riina who even went the extra step of kissing her paw and blowing it to him with a long, slow wink.

“Dude, you have it so bad for her!” Garret teased as he opened a cooler at the end of the bench and pulled out a chilled towel for his friend to press against his ears. “I think she’s got it just as bad for you!”

The rabbit could only nod. “I do, bro. I really like her.” He shook his head. “But…it feels a lot more than just ‘like’, you know?”

The ram shrugged. “D’you think your…you know, mated, or something?” Garret raised an eyebrow at the look he was given in return and waved a hoof in a placating gesture. “Dude, I’m not saying that’s bad or anything. You know me, I got no prob with preds or interspecies stuff. I mean, I’m all for what makes a mammal happy, y’know? Folks gotta go their own way.”

Bailey shrugged. “I…I don’t know. Then again, considering Judy and her husband, I might be. I know I’m happier when I’m around her and she makes me feel like I can fly…” He couldn’t help the dreamy expression that spread over his muzzle as he recalled the kiss for good luck Riina had given him just a few hours before, his lips still tingling. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this…”

“Smug?” Garret supplied with a grin when the rabbit tried to search his brain for a word and left an opening. “Smitten? Addled?”

“All of the above?” Bailey snorted as he pulled the towel off his ears and set his water down before getting to the floor to stretch. “You going to the lake with the rest of us tonight?”  
Garret blinked in sardonic exasperation. “Like I’d miss it? It’s going to be something like the last really good weekend until spring! Of course I’m going to be there, stupid cottontail.”

“Eh!” Bailey snapped and pointed a finger at his friend. “Watch it, or I’ll turn you into a sweater after I shear your mangy butt!”

Instead of taking umbrage at the old joke between the two, Garret put his hooves on his hips and threw his chest out in a proud pose. “And you won’t find better wool anywhere else!”

The pair broke into laughter for a moment before returning their focus back to the meet. According to the board they were up by two points, the Deer Brooke’s loss of one of their gymnasts not doing their overall score a lot of good. Everyone wished that the accident hadn’t happened, of course, but it would help the entire team get to the championships in Zootopia.

*****************

“Last event,” Bonnie breathed as the final run of girls’ performances finished up with the visiting team moving past Bunnyburrow by one and three quarters of a point. “The judges are a lot pickier this year,” the doe commented to no one in particular.

“Well, they have to be, Bon,” Stuart said as he crushed his program in his paw once more in a show of nerves. His behavior during meets was never good and if one were to watch they would think he was the one competing. While the buck was rooting for his son and the Bunnyburrow team, he admired the skill all of the kits showed, and even when it was an opposing team he watched with a fairly high level of anxiety. The amusing thing to the rest of his family was that if it hadn’t been for Judy showing that rabbits could break out of their stereotypes, he would have forbidden his son to even think about entering the world of gymnastics competition. “Oh, no!” the buck moaned. “The high bar always makes me cringe!” he said as he tugged his cap down over his eyes.

Bonnie smiled in a mix of affection and exasperation as she patted her husband’s paw. “Dear, all of the events make you cringe.”

“But it’s so high!” Stu exclaimed with a paw pointing at the equipment for the last round.

Nick nodded as he eyed the contraption. “It does look a little high,” he agreed. “But considering what we saw Bailey do on the floor routine, that’s nothing. I swear if we tied kites to his arms he’d fly away.”

Judy snickered as she squeezed her mate’s paw and leaned against his shoulder. “He’s doing things that I never thought a bunny could do, that’s for sure!” She glanced to the little vixen who was only a couple of inches taller than she was, the young fox watching her brother avidly. “So what do you think about all of this, Riina?” the bunny inquired innocently.  
“I am thinking it’s wonderful!” Riina breathed, not even pulling her sapphire eyes from where Bailey sat with his face a study of concentration. “Bailey…he is being so very good! So graceful and beautiful!”

The vixen’s parents looked at their daughter and each other with curious expressions, one that was mirrored on Nick’s face when Judy glanced up at him. She caught his eye and her mate only gave her the slightest nod.

‘Really?!?’ the bunny mouthed silently.

Nick only shrugged with a noncommittal jerk of his head before lifting his other paw and signing, ‘Maybe,’ once, then twice.

Judy sat back with a sort of satisfied smirk, nestling closer against her fox. It was sort of nice not being the only odd one in the Hopps family, Jeremy not quite in the same category as her and Bailey as he continued his fairly mellow relationship with his coyote girlfriend, but close. As the announcement was made for the final round of competition, the speaker repeating once more the points that the judges would be scoring on, Judy divided her attention from the activity gearing up out in the gym and Riina, noting how the vixen leaned forward in anxious anticipation, her tail wagging fitfully as she bounced between nerves for Bailey and the all to obvious affection she had for the bunny’s brother.

With the courtesy given visiting competitors, the Deer Brooke team was to begin the last series of routines and Judy couldn’t help but tighten her grip on Nick’s paw for a moment before she pulled his arm around her shoulders, the fingers on her free paw crossed, as well as her feet in an age old bunny gesture of good luck wishes for another.

******************

Bailey walked up to the high bar, and took its measure with a moment’s scrutiny. At a mumbled grunt of inquiry from Coach Thumper Bailey nodded, letting out a tense breath as the older rabbit put his paws on the younger buck’s waist to give him a boost to the bar overhead.

The chalk on his paws helped secure his grip on the wooden bar without hindering the amount of give that he’d need, and Bailey pulled himself straight up from a dead hang, folding his body at his hips, legs extended before passing them through the space between his elbows.

That was the easiest part of the routine, and as he took a deep breath and let it out, the buck let the forms, maneuvers and motions of his routine translate from images in his mind to reality through the medium of his body.

Bailey waited until his body was over the bar before gripping tight and flexing the muscles of his core, stretching his entire form perfectly vertical, his toes pointed at the roof of the gym and held it for two seconds then shifted his weight ever so slightly to begin a controlled swing that gathered speed and inertia before making a second revolution. At the top of that orbit he bent and dropped through the space between his arms and again straightened prior to turning the energy into another circuit with the bar as the axis of his travel. 

When Bailey was at the apex once more he slowed the speed of his revolution then flexed his arms before releasing the bar a fraction of a second later, spinning as his toes once more pointed at the roof, the buck’s body turning a hundred and eighty degrees. Then his paws caught the bar once more and he swung his body again through the space between his arms and used the inertia until he was once more vertical and let go again, this time spinning a very rapid, full three hundred and sixty degrees with another threading of his lean form through his limbs much to the shock and delight of the crowd.

The rabbit was nearing the end of his routine and what came next would require all of his concentration, and Bailey did another revolution around the bar to both build momentum, and to give him a half second to catch his breath and focus. Steeling his nerve, deep down actually terrified about what he was about to attempt, the injury the Deer Brooke girl had suffered foremost in his mind, the buck sped up, despite his relatively slight mass, the bar bowed dramatically and he’d have to take that into account.

Then the moment had arrived and Bailey, his body completely parallel to the floor, flexed his arms, stopping the orbit cold and seemingly hung in midair for a second as his body spun on a lengthwise axis, his paws again catching the bar in a snap so rapid that those that blinked missed it. Then the rabbit used the inertia to spin in the opposite direction, still too focused to hear the gasps and cries of the crowd at the brazen, exceedingly difficult maneuver.

Bailey travelled around the bar once more, twice, a third time, waiting for the fourth to finally launch up and out in an arc that gave him enough height and energy to perform three full flips with one and a half spins before landing on the thick mat. It was the landing, though, that disaster finally struck, and as he flexed his legs to take the brunt of the shock of his landing, his left thigh gave out, pulling lame with a white hot lance of fire as the earlier routine and the excess of blood that had pooled into the limb caused it to fold.

More gasps erupted from the crowd as Bailey went to his knees for a moment before forcing himself upright on his right leg, that limb trembling with the effort of taking all his weight as he stood erect and raised his arms over his head. The applause, as much for the fact that he was standing as for the astonishing routine, began slowly then spread. Bailey held the pose for a moment then lowered his arms, wanting to sit down more than anything else right then. As soon as he took the first step Coach Thumper was there along with Garret and others, hoisting the young rabbit between them to get him back to the Bunnyburrow benches.

“Is it bad?” the Coach asked, his golden brown eyes filled with concern. The meet had already seen enough injuries.

“Just strained and cramped,” Bailey answered, glad that rabbits didn’t perspire. “I think…”

“We’ll look at it,” the older rabbit, his thick grey and white fur giving him a soft look that belied the whipcord muscle beneath. “That was incredible, Bay,” he said once his student was on the bench and had a bottle of water in his paws that he consumed along with a couple of slices of banana for the potassium. He worked as the judges tallied the score and began the calculations for the final verdict. “You’re right,” the Coach said after a few minutes. “Just a little too much on it today, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” Bailey said as his spirits fell with the posting of the scores. “And I cost us the competition…” he said and pointed with his chin at the numbers on the electronic board. He swore softly and smacked the bench with his paw clenched into a fist. “By a quarter! Seriously?!? By point two five?!?”

The buck stayed seated as the judges made their decisions known to the rest of the gymnasium, congratulated the competitors, and that was it for the day until the next year. There were other meets, but as it stood, Deer Brooke would be going to the championships in Zootopia, not Bunnyburrow. He knew that he’d given it his all, but Bailey felt as if he’d let everyone down by not being strong enough.

“Nah, dude! You gave it your full game, bro!” Garret told him with a light punch to his friend’s shoulder. “If anything, blame me. I was two points off both my routines. The rings kicked my wooly butt today, so it’s my fault as much as anyone’s.”

Other members of the team agreed, pointing out that Bailey’s routines were far better than theirs and that if they’d done better the rabbit wouldn’t have had to push himself so hard. That, and Peggy, the quiet star of the girls’ portion of the team pointed out that it gave them a whole season to really up their game and that next year they’d stomp tail. The support of his fellow gymnasts boosted the young buck’s morale so that by the time the scores were called he wasn’t feeling as nearly down on himself.

It took thirty minutes for the meet to break up, the athletes and their families the last to leave, and the two different teams congratulated each other and the words exchanged were actually heartfelt. Bailey was heaped with praise for his exhibition, the opposing team’s coach half serious as he offered the rabbit a place on the Deer Brooke team if he ever wanted. Then the rabbit’s family was there with hugs and congratulations, but it was the surprised approval and admiration from Judy and Nick that meant the most to him.

Until he saw Riina and her look of unchecked adoration.

“You were being magnificent!” the vixen whispered as she leaned down to kiss the rabbit’s cheek, not caring who was watching the display in the slightest. “Is you leg being hurt bad?”

“It’s just a little bit of a pulled muscle is all,” Bailey said as his ears darkened, though the grin on his face at the bit of affection indicated he wasn’t too embarrassed. “A bit of a soak in a hot bath and I’ll be right as rain.” He took the vixen’s paw in his and squeezed it reassuringly. “And nothing is going to get in the way of a weekend at the lake.”

The buck didn’t see the knowing looks the adults around them shared as he was too busy making eyes at the fox that held his paw and stroked the fur of his knuckles with her thumb pad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy, describing gymnastics maneuvers is far from easy and I hope I did them justice. The routines that I've had Bailey perform are some of my favorite Olympic events and you can find me glued to the TV when they're on!


	6. Chapter 6

“You know, it’s a good thing that most species have evolved to the point that anything that can speak isn’t considered food,” Lori teased her brother as he limped slightly towards the battered pickup that was loaded with everything that would be needed for a weekend of camping by the lake. “Pulling up lame like that and Riina might have looked at you as an easy supper!” the bunny continued with a peel of laughter. Then her amused expression turned into a leering grin as Bailey drew closer. “Or maybe you wouldn’t mind playing prey for certain saucy little vixen, huh?”

“Lorilee Adele Hopps!” Bonnie chided as she neared the truck with a basket that held the lunch she’d packed her kits for the afternoon, her perked ears having easily overheard the comment. “You aren’t so big or old that I can’t swat your tail so you better behave!” The older doe turned to her son, her expression softening by several degrees. “Your sister does have a point, though,” she agreed before dropping her voice to just above a whisper. “Do you have protection?”

Bailey physically cringed, his head sinking between his shoulders as his paws splayed in embarrassed shock. “Geez, Mom! Really?!?”

Lori laughed so hard that she had to wrap her paws around her stomach and paused to wipe at her eyes when the fit of mirth passed. “I don’t think he can get a fox preggers, Mom. Besides, Bailey’s still a viiiiirrrrrgiiiiin!” she sing-songed with a smug grin that would have done their brother-in-law proud. “Then again, I don’t think he’s actually one of us. I mean he’s seventeen now and still hasn’t even seen a girl nak-“

“Can we so not be talking about this?” the young buck complained with his ears turning an interesting shade of pink. “And you better watch it if you don’t want to walk to the lake!” Bailey added with a glare at his sibling.

“It’s okay,” Bonnie told her son with a matronly paw to his cheek. “Some of the Hopps are late bloomers, but they make up for it later on. Why your father-“

“Oh! Wow! Look at the time!” Bailey all but shouted as he held up his wrist to look at a nonexistent watch. “OkayMomloveyougottago!” He fired off as he yanked the door to the pickup open and got inside, the move not as smooth as it could’ve been had he not been favoring his leg. 

Lori jumped in on the other side, already buckling the seatbelt before closing the door and waved at her mother still giggling with unbridled mirth while her brother huddled almost sullenly over the steering wheel. 

Bonnie continued to wave for a moment longer then lowered her paw as she watched the old truck pause at the end of the driveway before turning left and sighed. She didn’t lament her son being hung up on the little vixen down the lane, but he would have given her such pretty grandkits if Riina had been a bunny instead. She did console herself with the satisfying notion of being able to embarrass her children with the most innocuous of questions, though.

“So,” Lori asked as she sat back and kicked her feet up on the passenger side dash board and settled a pair of sunglasses on the bridge of her lapin nose, “are you willing to accept my offer?”

Bailey shrugged as he wrestled the shifter into third gear. “It’s up to Riina,” the buck answered. “I…I don’t want to pressure her or anything or make her do something that she doesn’t want to do.”

The bunny on the other side of the cab paused in her examination of her small claws that were alternately pink and purple to go with the most colorful portions of her dyed fur, even her toe claws having been freshly shellacked, and looked at her brother over the dark lenses. “You…you’re serious, aren’t you?”

Bailey tossed a quick glance at his sibling before pressing the clutch and downshifting in preparation for the turn into the Kettu orchards. “Serious about what?”

“Uh-uh,” Lori grunted. “You don’t get to play coy with me. And I’m talking about you and Riina, of course. You know, being intimate?” She shook her head in astonished admiration. “The only one of us that has ever acted this way was Judy and that’s because she was too focused on getting into the Academy. You’re doing it because you really like her!”

The buck sighed. “It…I think it’s more than that, Lori, and it’s kind of scary for me. I even talked to Judy and Nick about it.”

“So, tell me, already!” Her smile and expression were genuine. “Remember, I’m the one that’s supported this from the get-go!”

Bailey nodded and pulled the truck over before applying the parking brake and turned soulful eyes to his littermate. “I…I don’t get…um, excited by the smell of does, you know? Like a…a normal rabbit would. All the signs, the clues, the hints…they just don’t do anything for me.”

The bunny on the other side of the seat nodded in dawning understanding. “But Riina does, huh?” 

When her brother closed his eyes and nodded silently her heart went out to him. For a rabbit to be attracted to a different species was normally frowned upon. Simple physical attraction and curiosity aside, picking up and responding to another mammal’s pheromones was seen by most members of rabbit culture as the worst kind of mental disorder. In the past, before prey and predator learned to live together and rabbits were considered food by almost everything else, Bailey would have been sacrificed to pagan gods or stoned to death for being an aberration.

Unfortunately there were those individuals, like old buck Stumps and others around Bunnyburrow and other places that still believed that way. 

“I like her scent,” Bailey continued. “I get all…you know, when she gives off those signals.”

“Okay. I’m still not seeing a problem, here,” Lori told him with a sisterly paw to his shoulder before brushing at the fur of his neck to calm and relax him, just like he did for her and both had done for other siblings. “What did Judy and Nick say?”

“They showed me some news articles online where doctors and scientists said it was a behavioral adaptation. They even said that in a few centuries it might lead to the possibility of different species being able to have kits or cubs or whatever together, like a sort of evolutionary advance.”

The bunny nodded. “I guess it makes sense. Jeremy has said that he’s learned there’s only a few slight genetic variations in the DNA of all mammals. I mean, we already have a lot of things in common, right? We’re all warm blooded, females all have breasts to make milk for their kits and stuff. It makes sense if you think about it.” She frowned when the stroking of his neck ruff still didn’t alleviate the tension. “So what’s really bothering you.”

Bailey took a deep breath. “You know that when I picked her up when she was all covered in dye a couple of weeks ago? Well, even in the gym, before really meeting her, I was attracted to Riina. And what I feel…it’s…it’s so strong! It scares me!”

“Well,” the bunny began as she withdrew her paw, “love is kinda scary. Look how much of a mess I was in a couple of months ago with Sam.”

“Yeah?” the buck said in a sullen sounding challenge. “At least Sam’s a rabbit!”

The bunny snorted derisively. “Yeah, but I don’t know if you noticed it or not, but Sam’s also a doe? The only thing worse than getting together with a non rabbit is being gay, brother-mine.”

“I thought you were bi?”

“Gotta play both sides to be bi, and have you seen me with any bucks lately?” Lori grinned. “You know what? No matter what others might say, we aren’t broken or deviants or whatever. We’re Hopps and that means we’ve just got the industrial strength innards to be open about being different. Besides,” she added with a laugh, “between all of our family that’s already gone out and started making litters and stuff, rabbits ain’t gonna disappear anytime soon. So I say stop getting all twisted up. Riina’s really into you, you’re into her…or at least she’d really like you to be,” Lori said with a wicked grin, “and to blazes with what everyone else thinks. We never know what’s gonna happen. Be happy while we can!”

“Be happy, huh?”

“Damn right!” Lori declared. “You want to say it’s not normal? Look at Judy and Nick and tell me that what they have is wrong. Mom and Dad aren’t even as close as they are, and that’s after two hundred and sixty eight of us!”

The tension finally drained from Bailey’s shoulders and he gave his sister a chagrined smile. “When did you get to be so smart?”

The bunny assumed a superior pose for a moment. “I’ve always been smart. You’ve just been too dumb to realize it!” Lori held the act for a couple more seconds before dissolving into laughter. “C’mon! Let’s go get your vixen before she thinks we’ve abandoned her.”

Bailey disengaged the brake and put the truck in gear, his muzzle splitting into a smile. “Yeah,” he said softly before sitting up straighter. “My vixen!”

*****************

Riina came bouncing out of the Kettu house before Bailey could even stop the truck, a bag with clothing over one shoulder, a large wicker picnic basket in the other. The Hopps siblings had provided the tents, and due to the number of kits that had to be properly outfitted in the rabbit family, were providing the vixen with other items such as an air mattress and sleeping bag. Apart from clothing and a pillow, the fox had everything she would need.

Bailey almost ran into a planter before getting the old truck to stop as he was fixated on the outfit that the platinum fox wore and how it looked on her lithe frame. While both he and Lori were in shorts with T-shirts that weren’t important and could get dirty or torn, always a possibility while camping, Riina wore a pair of loose shorts, that also happened to show more leg than even her gym outfit did, and a tanktop that was cut to a midriff, exposing her lean belly and more of her intriguing fur coloration. Both articles were in a shade of blue only a few degrees lighter than her eyes.

Before Bailey could even open his door, Lori was out and helping their friend stow her things in the bed of the truck as the vixen’s parents strolled up to the driver’s side, paw-in-paw and smiles on both their muzzles.

“How are you feeling, Bailey?” Ilona asked with a smile. “Is your leg still troubling you from this morning?”

The buck smiled and shook his head. “A hot shower did wonders! A couple of days taking it easy and I think I’ll be right as rain.”

Tapio chuckled. “I am not knowing how your mother and father can watch these gymnastics of yours. When you performed on that very high bar I am thinking my heart was in my throat with fear! You are not only being a very talented rabbit, but also very brave!”

Bailey felt his ears redden at the praise and ducked his head shyly. “I…I guess I like the rush,” he told them, seeing that his choice of words didn’t quite translate well and explained. “Um, the thrill of it. I also like the challenge of pushing myself, doing a little more each time. It’s the only way that I can see just how good I’ll be.”

Both of the older foxes nodded in understanding. “It was still a very impressive display. Do you think one day to maybe compete in the Animalympics? If this wasn’t your best performance as you said this morning, then certainly your best would be winning gold medals!” Ilona said with conviction.

“It’s one of my dreams,” the rabbit admitted. “Lately I’ve been trying to think beyond competing, like what to do with the rest of my life.”

“I am to be assuming that you do not feel the draw to be a farmer like your father is being?” Tapio inquired with curiosity.

“It’s not my first choice,” Bailey admitted. “I respect farmers, I really do. But…well, I guess I want to do something with just a bit more meaning. I just haven’t figured out what that is yet.”

“Ah,” the red fox vixen replied with a knowing smile. “Riina is similar. She does enjoy the farm life, but she feels the need to do more. She has a great heart and wishes to help more mammals than just growing apples provides!” She glanced at where her daughter and Lori were standing politely waiting for the conversation to conclude. “And that, I think, is enough for now. We can talk more after all of you come home from your holiday at the lake!”

Before he could say anything, Ilona leaned in through the window and gave Bailey a motherly kiss on his cheek while Tapio reached in and took his paw in a friendly shake while tousling the rabbit’s ears good-naturedly. “Go be having fun, yes?” the fox said before moving back around to the front of the truck and getting brief but heartfelt hugs from their daughter who then bounced back around and got into the truck.

“How are you feeling?” Riina asked as she threw her arms around Bailey’s neck and held him tightly for several long moments that, for the rabbit, were filled with acute bliss.  
“I’m fine. Really. I just pulled some muscles is all,” the buck replied as he held the vixen just as tightly.

A small part of him that was aware of something other than the fox in his arms and not distracted with the way Riina seemed to mold against him or the dizzying warmth that radiated from her body observed that with the vixen nearby, all of the worries and doubts dissipated like a wisp of smoke on a breeze. For the better part of his awareness, Bailey only knew that Riina was with him and that alone was enough to make everything just perfect in his little world.

The sound of the passenger door shutting broke the through the moment and the couple parted, though they didn’t break contact, Bailey grinning in a silly manner with the feel of Riina’s hip pressed against his and her tail laying over both of them like some sort of blanket. He started the truck and popped the brake, his paw on the shifter before he realized that the vixen’s legs were on either side of the control. “Um…this…you…”

“Yes?” Riina inquired as she gave the buck a sort of dazed smile, her eyes heavy and warm and full of a sort of hunger that the rabbit responded to.

“N…n-n-nothning…” he husked as he managed to put the truck into reverse with only mild gear grinding and backed up.

“Oh, yeah,” Lori muttered as she frantically pawed at the window crank and rolled the pane of glass down before angling the little triangular front window on its pivot. “That so answers that question!” She squirmed on her portion of the seat, ignoring the way that the vixen rested her head on the shoulder of the bunny’s brother. “I so hope Sam doesn’t take her time getting out to the campsite,” she muttered to no one in particular.

******************

Despite the protests of the girls and Riina’s playful attempts to keep Bailey from pushing himself, the buck insisted on helping get the tents set up then began the process of filling the air mattresses with a battery powered air pump. Granted, he felt like the inflatable sleeping pads were a bit of a luxury, but he wanted Riina to be as comfortable as possible. As he worked on bringing the mattresses up to a nice firm pressure the vixen and Lori ran around the perimeter of the campsite collecting firewood, gathering a substantial pile in a short time so that by the time Bailey had bedding in the tents that were placed a discreet distance away from each other there was more than enough fuel that they wouldn’t need more until the next day, if that.

“It has been a very long time since I was being on a camping trip!” the vixen told the two rabbits as they all took a seat on small pads that had been rolled up in the rest of the gear. It was less to provide cushioning on the grass covered sandy soil and more to keep detritus out of their fur. Riina hauled the wicker basket closer and flipped the lid open with a flourish and a smile. “I am loving the camping and made us a very Finnish lunch to be having!” As the fox doled out the food Lori popped open the cooler to get cans of juice before Riina waved a paw at her. “No, no. I am having something for you to taste.” Before passing out the plastic covered plates she gave each of them a cup and pulled out a jug of cloudy, amber liquid. “Pappa was already working on this for the festival. It is being the first cider from the apples. He is letting it steep with clove, nutmeg, cardamom and a touch of honey after the pressing. He is wishing to know what you are thinking!” Riina told them brightly as she tipped the jug.

Lori’s eyes snapped open at the first sip and lowered the cup while smacking her muzzle in appreciation, her pink tongue wicking away the residue on her lips. “Sweet Mother Luck!” the doe whispered in astonishment. “Riina, this absolutely rocks!”

“Oh…wow,” Bailey breathed as he nodded in agreement. “This is so going to become a Carrot Days favorite! I hope your Dad has a tanker truck of this otherwise he’s going to sell out before the first day!”

“You are liking?”

“Shyaa!” Lori enthused as she emptied the cup and sighed happily. “We need to see how this would mix with Dad’s carrot juice! We could get rich on just selling that!”

Riina beamed under the praise. “There is being more,” she told them as she passed out the covered plates. “These are called kaalikääryleet…they are being cabbage rolls, but I am making them without meats just for us. There are being different vegetables and nuts inside.” She pointed out a thick wedge on her own plate. “This is being leipäjuusto…a cheese with cloudberry jam. And that is just a simple bread, though for dessert I was making pulla which is being a sweet bread.”

“Oh…my…god…” Bailey mumbled around a mouthful of the cabbage roll. “Riina, if you cook like this too much I’m going to get fat!”

“You are liking?” she asked demurely, though her tail was wagging energetically at the buck’s reaction.

“I want these everyday!” Bailey told her. “They’re phenomenal!”

A knowing smile crept over the vixen’s muzzle as she whispered mostly to herself before taking a bite of her own lunch. “I could be making them for you every day…”

All three made short work of their meal, both of the rabbits getting the fox to promise to share the recipe with their mother before laying out under the sun, happily full and pleasantly drowsy. Riina had readily agreed when Bailey beckoned her closer and she lay snugged against the buck’s side, her paw resting on his chest as her fingers gently stroked his fur through his shirt, her eyes heavily lidded with a look of pure contentment on her face. Once their food settled and they’d had their fill of lounging, Lori piped up as she rolled to a sitting position.

“Now it’s getting a bit warm. Anyone else up for some lake time?” the bunny asked as she pulled her shirt off to reveal a bikini top in a day-glo purple that almost matched some of the dyed portions of her fur.

“A swim would be very welcome!” Riina agreed. “I will be needing to change, though,” she told the other two as she grabbed her small pack. “Which tent am I to be in?”

“That one,” Lori said quickly as she pointed to the one closest to the water, smiling wickedly before her brother could say anything. “You’ll be thanking me in the morning!” she whispered with a long, slow wink.

“I think you should let me talk to her before you go playing match-mates, don’t you?” Bailey grumbled in irritation. 

“I already have, silly rabbit. Leave things to your sister that has your best interests at heart, all right?”

The buck could only stare in shock. “Y-you did what?” he whispered in shock.

“I talked to her this morning when we all showed up to watch the meet,” Lori informed her sibling as she stood and shuffled her shorts off, like the top, she’d worn the rest of her bikini under her clothing. “It’s sweet that you’re so nervous, though. A girl appreciates things like that!”

Bailey was still irritated by his sister’s interference and crossed his legs to drop his elbows on his knees with a huff. The thought of actually sharing the tent with the vixen that had become the center sun of his personal universe was putting a bit too much stress on him as he struggled with wanting to try and act the way he felt he should, and the way he wanted to.

“Look, brother-mine. I know that it’s got you worked up, but I also know that it’s what both of you really want deep down.” She tilted her head with a challenging glare. “Or was their some other reason the truck filled up with the ‘come-get-me-take-me’ scent from both of you when we picked up Riina? That vixen in there thinks that you are the embodiment of everything good in life and she’s totally in love with you in case you haven’t noticed.”

Before they could go any further in their conversation the zipper to the tent made a soft, high pitched ripping noise as the platinum fox opened the flap and stepped out. Instead of exiting head first, Riina backed out tail first, her caudal appendage held high enough to revel the bottom half of her swimsuit. The high cut teal bottoms gave her backside a full and very enticing appearance, the back edge under her tail with a string tie over it and the sides rode high on her gently rounded hips. When she was out and got the door flap closed and stood, Bailey saw that the top portion was a simple band across her breast line. Like other mammals she didn’t have any swells, nor would she until she gave birth to kits and began nursing, but the potential was there. She smiled at the look of open muzzled astonishment from the buck and looked away coyly, though inside she was keening with joyous victory at the appreciation that the rabbit stared at her with. 

With graceful, almost mincing steps, Riina stepped to the seating pad that the buck was on and held out her paws to help him up. “Do you need to be putting on your swimming trunks?” she asked softly, her eyes sparkling merrily.

“I-I-I…I, um…already wearing them…” he stammered as the vixen all but hauled him to his feet. She was almost the same height with a slender and lithe frame, but Riina was also a predator and deceptively strong. He shucked out of his T-shirt and let it fall from his paw, wanting to shiver in delight as the vixen looked him up and down with approval.

“When we are done will you be helping me to groom my fur? I am not wanting it to be getting matted from the water and improper drying.”

Bailey nodded silently as his mouth fell open further.

As she turned and headed for the blue, rippled water of the lake, Bailey’s nose began to wiggle furiously as he sniffed at the air, his eyes rolling back in his head as his eyes closed. He loved the vixen’s musky personal scent, though it wasn’t as strong as a male fox, it still had a deep, earthy flavor to it. Below that, however, was a sweet scent that sent jolts of electricity through his brain and to much lower areas and he felt himself responding.

He barely recalled talking to his brother-in-law about it, saying that he found her scent absolutely exhilarating, but especially the subtle perfume that she wore. Nick had blinked at him with a wide-eyed sort of surprise.

“Sweet smell, huh, Squirt? What does it remind you of?” Nick had inquired in a flat, guarded tone.

Bailey had shrugged. “Um, it kinda reminds me of flowers…violets, I guess. Like in the spring when they pop up everywhere. I love it when she wears that perfume.”  
“That’s not really perfume, Bailey,” the fox had said as he put a paw on the rabbit’s shoulder.

Nick had taken him away from the others and they’d once again found themselves on the tire swings as the latest and most unexpected addition to the Hoops clan chuckled softly.  
“Every vixen in the world has a special little gland just under her tail. This sub-caudal gland is called the violet gland and it is only ever really noticeable when the vixen in question is in the throes of the old mating cycle time of the year from when all of us were just dumb, unenlightened animals.” He smiled at the buck and clapped the youth on the shoulder. “Now that still happens, but it can also start up when a vixen has found the one that she wants to be with. As in ‘for the rest of her life’ be with.”

Bailey had blinked at that, realization creeping over him slowly. “You…you mean like 'mates' mates?”

“Yup. Guess I’m not the only fox out there that’s a bunny deviant,” Nick had chuckled.

The rabbit blinked again. “Is…is that why whenever Riina’s around I get…” he’d lifted his forearm slightly with his paw clenched, a disbelieving expression on his face. “Seriously?!?”

“Seriously.” Nick shook his head as he left a paw on the young rabbit’s shoulder as a sign of support and comfort. “I guess you’re more like your sister than you thought, huh?” The red fox sighed with a slightly troubled expression. “You do know what this means, right?”

Bailey had shrugged at the question. “I guess that she wants me as a mate…”

“It’s more than that. If the two of you don’t, er, DO anything…intimate, that is, it will pass. But if you do get with her that way, there’s a very good chance that she will never be with another if you decide you don’t want her and leave at some future point. It’s a blessing and a curse for us foxes, and it’s a very dangerous part of what we are. It makes it very easy for us to get our hearts broken. And I mean that in a very literal way. Some foxes have pined away for a lost mate, Bailey.”

“Pined?” the buck asked softly.

Nick nodded solemnly. “They let themselves die because they made a certain type of connection. And it’s a very horrible way to die. Putting a bullet in them would be a mercy.”

“What do I do?!?” Bailey had asked suddenly, his eyes and voice full of despair and panic. 

“I can’t tell you that,” Nick said with a shake of his head and sober eyes, all of his normal mirth and humor gone. “Don’t do anything and she may move on and find another. Deepen your relationship and she’ll never leave your side, Squirt. But, if you do anything…and I do mean anything to betray that bond, it may very well kill her, and it would be your fault.”

Bailey watched as the platinum vixen got knee-deep in the water, splashing playfully with Lori, both laughing like young kits. He certainly wasn’t drawn to anyone else. No doe had ever ensnared him with everything she was…

Riina did.

No one had ever made him want to just be there, or feel so protective over her or brought to the fore visions of growing old with them…

Accept Riina.

As realization struck him to the very core it was almost like he could hear Nick and Judy’s voices within his head. ”Now you understand what we are,” they told him in unison.

It was like a weight was lifted from his shoulders and his heart filled with a kind of luminous lightness that made him feel like he could fly! With a grin the buck launched himself from the sitting pad towards the lake, his bounding steps lifting him a little higher each time as he ran until water splashed up in shimmering droplets all around him, as if Bailey ran through cloud of glittering gemstones that were shot through with all of the colors of the rainbow. He didn’t stop until he’d caught the vixen, his arms wrapping around her with confident and unbridled joy. 

When his lapin muzzle met her vulpine one it felt as if they were just made to be. When he opened his mouth to draw in breath while his heart hammered away in his chest, Riina took the initiative, her own maw opening as the kiss became something new. Then she did something unbelievable that made Bailey moan with delight and surrender and…and love. The vixen slipped her fangs behind his teeth, binding them together as they tasted and explored each other in their first shared deep kiss and their breath passed from one to the other.

Only when they parted, both panting, both feeling something within them blossom into an emotional euphoria, both with everything they felt in their eyes as they gazed at the other did they realize that Riina’s long tail had wrapped both of them together at the waist.

“Riina…I…I love you…” the buck whispered.

Though he spoke barely louder than his rapid breath, the impact couldn’t have been any more poignant if the rabbit had screamed it at her. Riina’s lower jaw trembled as her eyes began to stream with tears that, like the splashed water, glittered in the sun like diamonds. He could feel the tremble that ran through her body as she sobbed silently once.

“Ra…rakastan s-s-s-sinua!” the vixen whispered back with another sob as she touched the rabbit’s cheek with a shaking paw but oh, so careful to keep her claws from the flesh beneath his fur.

“What does that mean?” Bailey asked after he swallowed once and partially found his voice.

Riina smiled and it was like watching the sun come out after a cloudy day. “It is being Finnish for ‘I love you’,” she told him before placing her head against his and crying softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re-reading this chapter...maybe that one reader was right and I really am trying for the title of Emperor of Fluffs....


	7. Chapter 7

Garret Woolerton had to cancel going to the lake with his friends at the last minute with the promise that he’d explain when he saw them the following week at the Carrot Days Festival. Gathered around the fire that Bailey had gotten going, Riina had cooked their supper, fire roasting vegetables and mushrooms over the open flames in a way that had both Hopps singing her praises before they simply lay back in the last rays of the sun. 

“Okay, so I’m going to have to tack another mile on my runs in the morning and evening,” Bailey said as he lay on his side, the vixen leaning against him in the hollow of his body as he absently ran his paw over the fur of her tail. “I swear I’m going to put on so much weight it’s going to wreck doing gymnastics.”

Riina only smiled while Lori threw a bit of twig at her brother. “Yeah? Well no one told you to dish up thirds!” The bunny laughed when her brother tried to throw the stick back at her and failed. “I mean really, Bailey? Thirds?”

“It was good!” the buck said in his defense as he reached out and brought the vixen’s paw closer to him, rubbing her knuckles against his cheek. “My vixen’s a good cook.”

The last caused the fox to go completely still as her eyes widened. Her head turned slowly as her ears folded back against her skull. “What are you saying…?” she whispered, her voice tremulous.

“I’m saying that I’m your rabbit and you’re my vixen,” Bailey said softly as he sat up and wrapped his arms around the fox only to find her trembling. “I’m your mate, Riina. We both know this. I think…I think I’ve known it since I first saw you.”

The vixen didn’t even dare breathe, her eyes locked onto the smoky topaz colored orbs of the buck and finding only honesty within their depths. The pair was so caught up in the moment that they were completely unaware of the small convertible that pulled alongside the pickup truck.

With a thankful prayer muttered under her breath, Lori stood and made sure there weren’t any clumps of sand in her fur before grabbing her shorts and slipping them over her bikini bottoms. “Hey, Sam’s here! We’re going to run to the store for some sodas and juices. We’ll be back in a bit, ‘kay?” the doe said before darting to her girlfriend, not even letting the cream and white bunny out of her car. “C’mon! Let’s go to the store!” Lori told the other bunny as she got into the passenger seat.

“What?” Sam asked with confusion clear on her face as she looked first at the other bunny then at the buck and vixen and back. “What do we need from the store? I’ve got drinks and stuff in the trunk and-“

Lori silenced the bunny by the simple expedient of grabbing her shirt and pulling the other into a short but intense kiss. “I need to give them some privacy for a bit and going to the store will take about the right amount of time.”

Sam looked at her girlfriend then back at the vixen and rabbit, her eyes growing wide as she finally understood. “Them? Really? Now?” She shook her head, the motion causing her ears to flap together. “They’re…really?!?”

“Yes, really,” Lori insisted as she put the other bunny’s paw on the keys that still dangled from the ignition. She didn’t relax until Sam had backed up and turned her little car around, the little Kaninchenwagen purring loudly as the little engine labored in the sand and soft turf.

“They’re really mates?” Sam asked in disbelief. “Like mates-mates?!?”

“They will be by the time we get back,” Lori said.

Sam continued to shake her head minutely as she drove, her paw flicking on the headlights as the woods around the lake had started to get a little dark with the onset of night. “So, how do you feel about it?” the bunny asked in a guarded tone.

“I’m all for it!” Lori stated. “He loves her, she loves him. What more can they ask for?”

“But…mates? We’re not even out of high school yet!” Sam pointed out. “Maybe the whole concept is way above me, but aren’t they awfully young?”

The multihued bunny shrugged as she took her girlfriend’s paw. “I’ve been checking it out on a couple of online blogs and I talked to Nick about it. A lot of foxes settle on the one that’s going to be their mate when they’re really young. In a way I’m kind of jealous.”

Sam looked across the car for a moment before smirking. “You would be. For all your tough-bunny act, you’re just a big softie when it comes to the romance!”

“Maybe,” Lori agreed. “But I’ve never heard you complain about it. If anything I remember a lot of ‘Yes! Yes! YES!’ involved. Oh, and praying. You were doing a lot of that, too.”

“Same goes for you, hunny-bunny,” Sam countered with an arch look.

Lori smiled as she touched the other bunny’s ear, enjoying the reaction of her fingers caressing the velvety warmth. “Looks like tonight might be a long night for all of us, then!”

***************

Bailey wanted to lose himself forever in the sapphire blue eyes that seemed to look directly into his heart. He knew that Lori had grabbed Sam before the other bunny could even say hello and took off leaving the young rabbit alone with Riina and that was fine with him. As he gazed at her Bailey touched Riina’s face, his fingers tracing the line of her delicate muzzle and over the fur of her cheek his breathing hitched as she kept eye contact while leaning her head into the cup of his paw.

“You know…there are times that all of this feels like it’s a dream,” the buck told her, his voice thick and rough with the emotions that crashed deep within him. “I’m worried that I’ll wake up and none of it will have been real.”

Riina’s nod only nuzzled her head further into the rabbit’s touch as a smile played at her mouth. “I am feeling the same way.” The vixen sighed as she closed her eyes, her expression growing slightly pained. “I am happy it is not being a dream. That you are real and that we are being here together.” A single tear formed at the corner of her closed eye and slowly rolled down the fur of her cheek before landing on the buck’s paw. “I am the most happy that I can ever remember…and I am also being like a very frightened kit…”

Bailey nodded and smiled knowingly. “I feel the same way.”

“You are being frightened?” the vixen asked with surprise. “But…it is to be sounding bad…but you are not smelling frightened.”

“That’s because I’m with you right now.” When Riina blinked in confusion he pulled her further onto is lap and held her tight, his head resting against the fox’s as he spoke softly. “When I’m by myself, like at home, or in my room at night, I get so afraid that this…that you…us…it’s all a dream. Then I see you, and your scent fills me up, and I can touch you and everything’s okay. When we’re together it’s like we can take on the world and win, just as long as we’re together.”

Riina gasped slightly. “That is being very like a fox, Bailey,” she told him in wonder. “It is what mates are feeling. Alone they are missing their other half so much that it is almost like a physical hurt. Then…then when they are being together again all is well. But you are being a rabbit! How can you be feeling these things?”

“I…I think we both know the answer,” the buck whispered as he nestled his head into the hollow of her neck and shoulder. “Nick says that maybe being born a rabbit was a mistake because I act more fox like than I should.” He sighed as a slight tremble ran through him. “Riina…I can’t see my life without you in it, and I know that rabbits aren’t like foxes, but I swear I’ll show you every day of the rest of our lives that I love you.”

The vixen pulled back with a stunned expression, her deep blue eyes wide. “You would be wishing to be my mate? More than just friend a boyfriend, but you would say yes to being my mate?”

“I already am, Riina,” he husked, his words barely louder than his breath. 

Riina’s muzzle fell open in shock and wonder, though there was the spark of hope, of something far more meaningful in the depths of her eyes that seemed to reach out and touch the buck in the very center of his being. When her muzzle met his heat flared within and between them that was more intense than the little campfire and far more comforting. When they parted the vixen stood, taking Bailey’s paw with her. “Come with me,” she told him softly.

When the fox took the first few steps towards the tent the rabbit almost froze in his tracks until he saw the look in her eyes. “If we are to mate…to be bonding, there is something that I am wishing to do for you…”

Following with legs that had suddenly grown weak, the strained muscles of his left leg not helping in the slightest, Bailey entered the tent and let Riina guide him onto the air mattress. She paused to kiss the end of his nose before diving into the bag she’d brought. Her tail caught his attention for a moment, but his actual focus was on her. When she turned back around it was with a series of wooden brushes, obviously high quality.

“I have been wishing to do this since the day you were finding me covered in red colorings and dye,” she told him with a slightly amused expression.

“Wha…what’s that?” Bailey asked with a nervous catch that he swallowed down in a loud gulp.

“I am wanting to groom your fur.”

Despite the excitement that filled him, the buck remembered what his brother-in-law had told him, that grooming was a very important precursor to the act of mating, a way of safely exploring each other before fully committing their bodies to one another. “You want to gr-groom me?”

“Oh, very much so, my beautiful Bailey.” She knelt down next to the air mattress. “Then, if you are wishing, you may be grooming me as well…” When he nodded mutely Riina giggled softly. “You will be needing to take these off. I am thinking I will not be able to be grooming you properly with them on.”

It took a little effort to shimmy the shorts down, and the ties to the waist caused him a little trouble. It was the first time since he was a kit that he’d be nude with female, though he’d been so young the last time that it hadn’t meant anything. Now it meant everything. When he turned his attention back to the fox after tossing the clothing onto the other side of the tent and looked up it was to find an equally nude vixen. As his eyes swept up her body starting with her feet, Bailey’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened as his heart hammered such a rapid tattoo that it threatened to burst from his chest.

“Riina!” he husked, his throat so tight he barely had any voice at all. “You’re beautiful!”

The vixen blinked at the exclamation and lowered her head while looking away as the rabbit’s words filled her with a sort of contented warmth that she’d never felt before. “I am not being told this very much…”

Bailey reached out and touched her wrists, looking up with a face that was still filled with awe and wonder. “Then you won’t be upset if I tell you that you’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen every day.”

She wanted to cry with joy at the rabbit buck’s suggestion, her tail thrashing ecstatically, or it would have had it not been pressed against the wall of the tent. Riina gave him another small kiss in gratitude as a smile crept over her muzzle. “You must stop saying such things or I will be standing here all night!” she admonished gently. “Please lay on your stomach…”

Bailey did as she instructed then shifted a little with the vixen’s weight on the air mattress as she got on as well. With a gentle paw she moved his ears up over his head before working the pads of her fingers into his fur, massaging gently, her claw tips barely grazing his skin underneath. The rabbit couldn’t help the gasp that followed, the contact the most marvelous and erotic thing he’d ever felt. “Oh…sweet baby carrots…” he mumbled. 

Riina followed the same pattern from his neck, down his back over his rump and thighs, taking a little longer with his left leg to ease the aches that she knew were still there. Eventually she ended at his feet, using her thumbs to massage the buck’s foot and toe pads, smiling at the small sounds of pleasure that her rabbit made. The vixen also couldn’t help but tease the puff of his short tail, causing it to twitch rapidly, laughing softly at the reaction before grabbing her brushes. Riina pulled the soft bristled implements through Bailey’s soft fur in long strokes.

“I…have never…felt anything like…this…” Bailey mumbled happily.

“Shh,” the vixen whispered next to his ear, leaning over him to place a tender kiss at the point his right ear met his head. “It is getting better.”

As with the massage, Riina brushed his fur all the way to his toes, the rabbit’s earlier soft moans turning into sighs with every pull of the bristles through his coat. It was so much more intimate than the rabbit would have thought, the process not just the simple hygiene practice that he was more familiar with. It was absolute heaven! 

“Time to roll over my handsome rabbit,” the vixen whispered. “I am needing to be doing your front!” she told him with a playful but gentle pinch of his tail.

“Uh…front?” Bailey asked, his drowsy contentment of a moment before vanishing as he realized the state he was in and the fact that it would be impossible to hide his physical reaction to the attentions lavished on him by the fox.

Riina was insistent and helped him to roll over, her appraisal causing Bailey’s ears to heat in a blush as her sapphire eyes drank in the sight of him exposed fully to her. “I think I am making you happy, yes?” she asked as her paws worked into the silken fur of his shoulders and upper chest.

“Oh, yes…” he whispered, his eyes closing at her ministrations.

In reality the attentions of the young vixen were no different than what he’d gotten during other grooming sessions. The detail that made it so astonishing and arousing was the who he was getting the grooming from. And there was no avoiding places of his body that his siblings practiced. Riina touched him everywhere and with only a moment’s hesitation in some areas. It only served to make Bailey that much more aware of the vixen, her scent, the sound of her heartbeat and breathing. He opened his eyes to find her looking at him, the hope that he’d seen earlier having grown into something indisputable in her gaze, as well as a sort of hunger.

“Now you will be grooming me?” Riina asked when she’d finished and knelt on the air mattress next to the rabbit, the fingers of her paw absently stroking the fur of his stomach, claw tips scratching at him lightly.

“With pleasure,” Bailey answered truthfully. 

Once she was laying down he did for her as she had him, a massage of sorts first. He marveled at the complex layers of her fur, the softest being her undercoat deep down, while the upper layers were comprised of guard hairs, though all of it was soft, not like other foxes that the rabbit knew like Nick or Gideon, or even the vixen’s parents. Then there was the wash of her personal scent that grew stronger as he riffled her fur as he tended to the muscles underneath. It was a curiously strong, sweet-musk that made the rabbit feel lightheaded while also filling him with a sort of need and hunger of his own.

Bailey let his paws explore her, blushing as he touched her in places he’d never touched another mammal, his senses reeling as he discovered that there were curves and swells that had only been hinted at under her fur and the clothes she wore and they were marvelous! Her legs felt strong and lean and powerful as was the swell of her backside, her foot paws wider and meant for running with curved claws for traction. She was from hunter stock and it showed.

And she was heart-rendingly beautiful to him.

When it came time for the brushes, Bailey was astounded by the vagaries of her fur, how the colors changed and blended giving her such distinct colorations. Riina wiggled a little as the brush travelled down her sides and flanks, her muzzle pulled into a smile of delight with the feel of Bailey’s ministrations. Then came the part that she’d been waiting for and Riina turned to look over her shoulder with heavy, warm eyes.

“You may be touching my tail, Bailey,” the vixen cooed softly.

“Uh-huh…” he grunted huskily as he stared at the caudal appendage before taking it in his paws almost reverently. 

It was so full and the fur so rich that it took some doing to get the brush into the fine strands. When he tried to get a better hold so that he wouldn’t pull on the caudal appendage, Bailey’s fingers wrapping gently around the base, Riina arched her back with a sigh of sheer joy and pleasure, especially as the rabbit touched her in a place no other ever had. The tent filled with a flowery scent that almost caused the buck to swoon. 

“I-I-I’m sorry…!” he mumbled, the inadvertent touching of the vixen’s violet gland the most intimate thing he’d ever done in his life and it thrilled and terrified him.

The look that Riina gave, still arched upwards was anything but perturbed. “Bailey…I am being your vixen, now. It is very enjoyable being touched there by you,” she whispered huskily. She only nodded with the quizzical look that he gave her, settling once more as he resumed his brushing of her tail. Every stroke of the brush sent electric thrills coursing through the fox until the last pull and he set her tail down with almost reverent gentleness. Before he could say anything, Riina rolled over so that the rabbit could tend to her front, her expression one of supreme trust and affection.

It was even more enjoyable than having her back and tail tended to, and the platinum fox sighed often with the touches and caresses until he ended at her feet and sat on the inflatable bed with a dazed and disbelieving expression on his face, his short lapin muzzle sporting a grin that warmed the vixen’s heart.

“Bailey…” Riina began. “I am yours,” she whispered. “If…if you are wanting me…”

There was no doubt that Bailey indeed wanted the fox that lay before him, a feast for eyes and senses that he realized should he continue, would always be his…a lover…a mate…bound in a way that he’d never thought of experiencing in his life. “I do,” he admitted with a slow nod. “B-but only if you…if this is what you want…”

Two great tears formed in Riina’s eyes before sliding away to fall on the pillow under her head as her paws reached out for the buck. His body bespoke volumes of how ready Bailey was for the final step, but that he could show that sort of restraint, because he cared, was the final key. He was her mate, putting her before his own needs and desires, and she was his mate, wanting nothing more than to spend the rest of her days with the rabbit that slowly came down beside her.

“Oh, yes. I am wanting this very much,” the fox whispered before nibbling lightly on her rabbit’s ear. “I am wanting this and I am wanting you for the rest of my life…” She coaxed him over her body, her caresses and petting reassuring her rabbit, whispered words comforting him as they prepared to explore as yet unknown territory.

And as she prepared to give herself over to her rabbit, Bailey heard Nick’s words once more, that just a little more and there would be no turning back. 

Ever.

He was at the edge when Bailey paused, looking down into the blue eyes that had darkened with acceptance and desire, encouragement and love…so much love, and it would be his forever. “I love you, Riina,” he breathed, his own eyes filling with the tension and beauty of the moment.

“I love you,” she whispered back, one paw cupping his face as the other rested on his chest, her fingers curling into his fur. “Mate me, Bailey. Mate me and let us be making this forever…”

The moment seemed to stretch in two directions at once, lasting hours as he entered her most intimate embrace, her body resisting at first until he was fully accepted into her, and it seemed to pass so very quickly as well. With the initial joining, both simply lay there trembling, crying in absolute bliss at the perfection of it all, the warmth, the way they seemed to be made to fit together. After long moments they began to move, their bodies performing a duet as old as time itself, yet to them it was as new as the sunrise and unlike anything either had ever experienced.

Bailey tried to take all of it in; the warmth, the pressure and friction, all the while listening to the chirping purrs that came from Riina as a result of their union. When she coaxed him to lay fully atop her and wrapped her arms around him as her legs did the same about his hips, it was the most magical experience of his life. With his paws under her shoulders, he couldn’t help it as he neared the brink and his tiny claws sank past the lovely fox’s fur and into her skin. Instead of diminishing the moment, Riina reveled in it, calling his name in a ragged voice as she threw her head back, exposing her throat in a gesture of complete trust and surrender.

Then both tumbled into the moment of ultimate release, that little death that was all things primal and carnal, sharing the pinnacle of unbound joy with one another as they called each other’s name as if they were words of power until it passed and they collapsed next to each other, still joined, still holding each other.

Fox and rabbit.

Mates.

*****************

“Oh…wow,” Lori whispered as she and Sam got out of the car and headed to the campfire. “They really did it!” she whispered enthusiastically and set the bags of drinks and munchies down before jumping into the air and pedaling her feet rapidly in an exuberant bink, head thrown back with an expression of extreme satisfaction and fist pump thrown to the sky.

The other bunny looked at her girlfriend in confusion, her nose telling her just what had happened during their absence, the whole camp redolent with rabbit and fox pheromones and the sweet musk of intimacy. “So your brother got laid,” Sam whispered in confusion. “What’s the big deal? I thought you were expecting that to happen anyway.”

“I was,” Lori agreed, her eyes shining brightly as a smug grim pulled at her short, dainty muzzle. “But now they’re permanently mated! Riina’s about the sweetest girl I’ve ever met, and I swear if she weren’t straight and so hung up on my brother, I might have tried for her!”

“Oh, really?” Sam asked with an arched eyebrow and saucy look of challenge in her amber-brown eyes. “You would’ve tried for her?”

Sure!” the purple, pink and black dyed bunny said as she stepped towards the remnants of the campfire and threw a flirtatious shake of her tail at the other lapin before tossing a little more wood in the circle of stones, the coals causing the wood to catch almost immediately. “You know I’m free with my affections, and Riina is hot! Just thinking about getting that tail in my paws is enough to make me start panting.”

Sam caught the bunny from behind, her arms wrapping around the other doe as she nuzzle her nose into Lori’s neck with a few nibbles thrown in. “Then maybe I need to remind you of why you’re with me…” she whispered as she hauled the other bunny down to the padded cushion, her paws finding all of the special places she’d learned of since they started dating.

*****************

The weekend went by far too fast, and the group split up, Lori and Samantha heading off to the other doe’s home while Bailey took Riina to her parents’ house. She sat next to the rabbit as he drove, the tents and other gear in the bed of the truck ensuring there was plenty of room, the vixen simply wanting to be close to her mate.

“I need to drop the truck off at home. Jeremy wanted to borrow it for an outing with his coyote girlfriend. As soon as I get the tents and stuff put away I’ll be back over so that we can talk to your parents about everything,” Bailey said as he popped the shifter into third gear, no longer nervous that the stick was once again between the vixen’s legs and used it as an excuse to stroke the fur of her thigh with his thumb. After the past three days and two nights of the extended weekend he was less intimidated by intimacy and showing his affections.

“And this how I am knowing my rabbit is being a good mate!” Riina enthused with a doting smile before nibbling Bailey’s neck playfully.

“Not the neck!” he laughed, shrugging his head to protect a place that the fox had discovered was extremely sensitive, though nowhere near as much as his ears and short tail. “You’re going to get me all worked up and we’re going to have an accident!”

Riina rested the end of her muzzle on her buck’s shoulder and smiled before her tongue flicked out to lightly lick the edge of his ear. “Then maybe you should be pulling over and be showing me how much you love me,” Riina suggested in a throaty whisper.

A glance at the vixen showed that she was quite serious about her request, the effect on the rabbit instantaneous and powerful. “If we have to stop every mile it might put us home sometime tonight,” Bailey pointed out as he found a small nook in the woods off the dirt road. “And I am oddly okay with this.”

“That is being a good thing, I am thinking…” the fox said as she swung herself onto the rabbit’s lap as soon as the truck was stopped, her muzzle meeting his in a deep, passionate kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I should point out that when I came up with the character of Samantha I was unaware of Sophie Ripley having a Hopps doe with the same name. I think it's part of the hive mind thing... Anyhoo, while they may share a name, the two characters couldn't be any further apart on the spectrum as my Sam is a complete social butterfly, perky to the point of distraction, and possibly a little airheaded at times, but that's only when she's trying to figure out a way to make Lori happy.
> 
> And, because he could and it was such an awesome gift, our very own Steve Gallacci did some incredible Riina artwork that you can see here!
> 
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/21202966/  
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/21206029/  
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/21231778/  
> https://www.furaffinity.net/view/21231765/
> 
> I know the coolest, most talented people! Remember to thank Steve for his sweet art and check out his stories as well! He's one of the big influences for me getting into writing!


	8. Chapter 8

Bailey sat next to Riina with his paws on the table, fighting the urge to touch the platinum fox next to him as her parents regarded the pair with completely neutral expressions. If rabbits were able to perspire he knew that he’d be absolutely drenched in nervous sweat. As it was, the young buck fought the urge to tap his feet against the floor or the chair in miserable anxiety and kept his nose absolutely still, though with the feeling that he had to sneeze something terrible.

He had gotten home from the camping trip, thrown all of the gear into the storeroom where it was supposed to go, tossed the keys to his truck to his brother before dashing back out the door, barely pausing in his flight to give his mother a perfunctory kiss on her cheek and not noticing the way her nose wrinkled at the lingering scent that mingled his and the daughter of the Kettu family. Once outside the house he’d all but sprinted back down the lane to the house Riina and her family had moved into so that they could discuss the latest event with her parents, ignoring the twinge from his leg until it forced him into a sort of skipping lope.

The smile on Bailey’s face as he’d knocked on the door was still there when Tapio called for him to come in and found the three foxes at the kitchen table. A glance at Riina showed the young vixen sitting quite still with her head lowered, her tail pushed under the chair in a display of chagrin, while her parents simply stared at the rabbit. And for the first time in his life, Bailey knew what his unevolved ancestors felt when a predator locked in on them.

It was absolutely terrifying and he was glad that he hadn’t pelleted his britches at the two foxes staring at him.

“Bailey,” Tapio had said as he indicated the chair next to the silver fox’s daughter. “Come and sit down. I am thinking that we are having things to be talking over, yes?”  
When the rabbit started to step to the table, his left leg threatened to give way entirely but before he could even start to topple forward, Riina was there to support him, a half smile on her muzzle and her eyes full of affection and love. She got him to the chair and resumed her own seat. While both found it difficult not to close the distance and hold paws, the petite vixen wrapped her tail around her rabbit’s lower leg, that little bit of contact bolstering his nerves greatly.

So they told the elder Kettu’s the entire story of the weekend, the confessions, the inevitable conclusions and answered the most important questions of just what it meant for the rabbit to be bonded to the vixen. Bailey assured them that he was fully aware of the consequences and told them the same thing he’d told their daughter. No, he wasn’t a fox, and while it would be difficult to take him at his word just what Riina meant to him, he’d have to demonstrate to them that he knew his heart and that what he felt was true.

Now the two foxes sat staring across the table.

Tapio turned to his wife and mate, no words necessary in the look he gave or received in return. The silver fox nodded and stood, both of the younger mammals instinctually shrinking down a little, Riina in submission to her father, Bailey in more than a little fear. Tapio stepped behind their chairs before reaching over both young adults and took their forearms and placed their paws together before holding each one by their shoulders and pulling them closer together and against him.

“If you are truly being in love, do not ever be afraid to be showing it to others,” the silver fox told them gently. He then squeezed both with paternal affection, Ilona joining in the welcoming of the rabbit to their family circle and saying all that she felt needed to be said with a smile and warm embrace.

**************

“I am being more terrified to be telling Herra Stuart and Rouva Bonnie of things than I was of telling my Mamma and Pappa…” Riina said as they neared the Hopps farm, the house seeming as if it were looking down on the young pair as they walked along the dirt and gravel driveway.

“It won’t be that bad,” Bailey said as he gave the vixen’s paw a reassuring squeeze and warm smile. “I also asked Judy and Nick to be there, though I didn’t say why.”  
Riina nodded slowly. “If it is being all the same, I will be just a little afraid,” she said softly.

When the young couple entered, they weren’t greeted in the normal Hopps’ fashion of being overrun with enthusiastic bunny kits mobbing the platinum fox or their older brother. In fact, they saw no one until the pair stepped into the upstairs portion of the kitchen and found Bonnie, Stu, Judy and Nick all sitting at the small table in the corner. 

“Well, carrot sticks!” Judy said in exasperation as she handed a five dollar bill to her husband, though the smile on her face indicated she really didn’t mind at all.

Stu looked at his son and the fox for all of half a minute before his lower jaw began to tremble and he collapsed on his folded arms, sobbing softly while Bonnie came forward and hugged both her boy and the vixen.

“Still scared?” Bailey asked with a smile as Riina looked at him in astonishment while the bunny that held both drew in a deep, shuddering breath.

“You bunnies…” Nick said as he got two more cups own out of the cupboard for Bailey and Riina. “Always so emotional.”

The red fox’s words might have been meant as an attempt at humor, but the soft tone of his voice and the way he looked at the young couple bespoke volumes, and that approval, along with Judy’s, helped immeasurably. 

Stu finally got up and added himself to the group hug, completely uncaring that he got his wife and the kits wet with his tears, Bailey and Riina both grunting when he squeezed them tightly, demonstrating that the old rabbit was far stronger than he looked.

“Dad,” Bailey grunted. “Dad! We can’t breathe!”

“Oh! Sorry! I’m sorry! I just get so worked up sometimes!” Stu said as let go of the couple and rubbed at his face. “This is going to take some time for me to adjust to, I think.”

Bonnie nodded in agreement as she took half a step back, her paws clasped together in front of her. Nick had talked to her and Stu that this might happen, but it wasn’t something that she could just immediately accept. It wasn’t the fact that her son was mated to a fox, that was the relatively easy part. What had her emotionally off center was the fact that another of her children was growing up, and that was never easy. It seemed like there wasn’t much time left before all of her kits would be leaving to pursue their own lives and make their own way in the world.

It was that thought, of yet another kit on the cusp of adulthood that caused the doe the greatest amount of turmoil and her paws went to her muzzle as she hiccupped a soft sob and her eyes filled. “Oh, dear…” she whispered until Judy was there to guide her mother to a chair.

“Okay, kits,” Nick said as he set two cups of fennel and mint tea on the table at two empty chairs. “Sit down and tell us everything.”

“Everything but the naughty details,” Judy added with a wry look at her mate.

The red fox made a disparaging sound. “You know, you take all the fun out of embarrassing Squirt here,” Nick told his wife with a wink. “Wait! Bonnie, do you have any pictures of Bailey as little ball of kit fluff?”

The rabbit looked up in horror, first at the fox, then at his mother. “Mom…please don’t!” he pleaded, though it was too late as Riina already looked interested, her earlier trepidation melting away with the good-natured acceptance of the situation by the mammals present.

“Pictures of Bailey being a baby?” the vixen inquired as her ears perked up, her blue eyes sparkling as she pulled his paw into her lap. “I would be loving to see these!”

The buck’s mouth dropped open as his ears fell and he looked about the kitchen for support only to have Judy laugh at his stunned and slightly desperate expression. “Don’t look at me,” his sister said with a chuckle. “After Mom and Dad warmed up to Nick the first thing they did was show him my baby photos!”

“And they were adorable,” the red fox said as he opened one of the refrigerators for a pawful of blueberries.

Bonnie sat down at the table and claimed her cup of tea, a smirk on her face. “Uh-huh. I’m a terrible mother. Now tell us what happened,” she said with a glance at her daughter, “except the naughty parts. And If I don’t think I’m getting the whole tale, I’ll make sure I get out the pictures that show you being the happy little nudist!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a fairly short chapter, but it got some of the additional bits out of the way that were needed. 
> 
> I think that a few things need to be pointed out, here, and maybe I should have made them known last chapter, but I had either food poisoning or some wretched stomach bug and really wasn't in a fit state to be thinking clearly. As such, two of Steven's characters that will be appearing in this are Jeremy Hopps, a rabbit with aspirations to get a medical degree, and Celeste Whitefoot, a coyote and mechanic at one of the local equipment shops. The flit into this story and others, and it's only fair that I point you in Steve and eng050599's direction! Go! Read their stuff and be entertained with folk who have some top notch story telling talent!!!


	9. Chapter 9

Riina cooed with absolute delight as she exited the truck and let her eyes rove over the brightly colored stalls and tents with all manner of amusements, treats, rides and games. Her eyes tried to take everything in at once, her ears perked at the sounds of music, barkers and the laughter of children intermingled with screeches of joy as kits, cubs, lambs and pups dashed from attraction to attraction and treat stands or got caught up in the different rides. “It is almost like the harvest festivals back home!” the vixen told her rabbit as he joined her, their paws finding each other while the platinum fox’s tail automatically wrapped around the buck’s upper thighs.

“Riina,” Bailey said softly as he kissed the vixen’s muzzle. “This is your home, now.”

The laugh that escaped the platinum fox’s throat was high and breathy as she placed her free paw on Bailey’s chest. “No, lemmikki. Home is here…” she whispered with a coy drop of her head.

Neither of the young couple noticed the looks and knowing grins that Judy or Nick gave them at the signs of their status. “I thought the tail wrap was a you thing!” Judy whispered as she felt a grin spread over her short muzzle. “So it’s really a fox thing, huh?”

Nick nodded as his own tail curled around his bunny. “Guilty as charged, Officer. We foxes tend to be very affectionate where our mates are concerned.

“Do you think we were this bad when you and I first…you know?”

Nick snorted softly. “Oh, no. We were much worse! Or do I need to remind you that it was three days before you let me out of bed?”

“You’d been shot,” Judy replied tartly with a lifting of her chin. “I couldn’t let you wind up hurting yourself.”

“But exhausting me was okay,” the red fox accused, though the light tone of his voice indicated extreme amusement.

“Um…you know we can hear you, right?” Bailey inquired as Riina giggled despite her ears darkening on the inside with a blush.

“Pfff! You’re a big rabbit, now, Bailey,” Judy told her brother in a playfully sarcastic tone. “I think you can handle other adults talking about ess-ee-ex without acting like a kit. Or should we talk about some of the noises that were coming out of your room last night. And the ones this morning?”

Riina almost pressed her chin against her chest as she dropped her head in embarrassment and Bailey regarded his sister with wide-eyed, open-mouthed shock as his ears fell. “You heard us?” the rabbit asked with a gulp, wondering who else had heard him and the vixen.

Judy, standing with Nick’s paw in hers, her other resting against her out thrust hip just stared at her brother for several moments before completely folding double with laughter. “Oh! Cheese and crackers but you’re an easy mark!” the bunny exclaimed when she caught her breath. “I’m sorry, you two, but I couldn’t resist, but now I know that you were up to something!”

Bailey glared at his sister before sticking his tongue out at Judy. “You are an evil, evil bunny, sis.”

Judy simply gave her brother the smarmiest possible grin of satisfaction she could muster. “Am I evil? No. I’m not. But am I going to use this to embarrass you? Why yes, yes I am!”

Riina kept her head down though it did little to hide the small, knowing smile on her muzzle, her ears turning an even darker shade of pink when she saw the look that the red fox was giving her, one eyebrow raised before he shook his head. “You know you’re part of clan Hopps when you get teased,” he commented to no one in particular. “Oooo. There’s Gideon’s stall. I wonder if he’s got any blueberry pies out yet?”

The other three mammals looked over at the baker’s booth, Riina perking up. “Mamma and Pappa are talking to him! Can we be saying hello?”

“Of course!” Bailey replied with a chuckle. “Wow. It looks like your dad picked all the best apples for Gideon. Look at the size of those things!”

The quartet drew near as Tapio and Gideon were finishing up their conversation. Riina was all but bouncing on her footpads as she heard what was being said.

“Well, shucks, Mister Kettu,” Gideon told the silver fox as he rubbed the back of his neck with his paw, a warm smile on his muzzle. “Ah gotta pay more’n that! You, the Hopps an’ me might all be partners now, but Ah ain’t gonna let ya short change yourself, ‘specially not on apples that’re lookin’ this good! That orchard’s in right good paws if ya can get them trees to keep this up.”

Tapio held out a paw, his expression mirroring the red fox’s. “Then we have a…a deal, yes?”

“You better believe it! ‘Tween you and Mister Hopps, Ah’ll be makin’ the best pies, cakes an’ cookies Ah ever baked!” He glanced over and saw the other two foxes and bunnies, his expression brightening even further. “Well, lookie who decided to come home fer Carrot Days! How you doin’ Judy? Nick?” Gideon enthused. As he shook paws with the Wildes his eyes fell on Bailey and Riina, his head tilting quizzically.

“Ah, Gideon, I would like for you to meet our daughter. This is Riina,” the silver fox said. “I am thinking you are already knowing Bailey.”

“Oh, Ah know Bailey well ‘nough to make sure Ah keep an eye on my cookies when he’s ‘bout!” Gideon replied with a wink tossed at the buck. “Ah think half the reason he went an’ learnt gymnastics was so he could be a better cookie thief.” As he said it the fox pulled out a small paper bag from behind the simple counter and passed it to the rabbit. “Ah know. Stolen cookies taste better, but this should keep ya happy fer now!” He held out a paw to the vixen, his smile only faltering a little as his nose wiggled for a fraction of a moment. When he realized what he was picking up his eyes widened. “Well, Ah’ll be…” Gideon looked back and forth between the rabbit buck and platinum fox, his smile turning into a grin. “What Elliot was sayin’ the t’other day makes a heap more sense, now. Y’all two’re mated, ain’cha?” 

Riina stepped back beside Bailey as she and the red fox released paws, her eyes taking in the grass between all the mammals.

“Oh, no,” Gideon said as he lifted the vixen’s chin up and nodded at her. “Don’t ya go lowerin’ yer head. You and Bailey’re together, an’, by golly, ya be proud of that! Ah known this buck since he was yay high,” Gideon said as he lowered his paw past knee height. “He’s one o’ th’ best rabbits Ah ever met, and that’s includin’ his Pa. Ah always knew it was gonna hafta be a special gal to catch him, and Ah was right.” He stepped back and hooked his thumbs into the ties of his apron. “Now Ah think Ah’m gonna hafta bake up somethin’ special for y’all!”

As the group laughed and talked, Gideon telling the mix of bunnies and foxes to come see him if they got hungry during the day or wanted a little something sweet to nibble on, three sets of eyes watched the gathering, one with wide eyed confusion, one with only mild interest, and one set with smoldering hatred and jealousy.

“Did you hear that?” Tara Lagontelli asked the other two does with her in an outraged whisper, her paws tensing so much that her small claws actually slid out of the fur at the ends of her fingers. “Mated? That’s just so not possible!”

“They’re really ‘mated’ mated?” the youngest of the trio asked, Dixie Stumps, the rather naïve granddaughter of Alvin Stumps and one of Tara’s little first year plebes that did anything the older bunny asked to curry favor inquired innocently.

“That’s what they said!” the white and cream colored doe asked sarcastically. “Unbelievable!” Tara snarled as she walked to one of the small tables set up under a copse of trees and dropped onto a bench, her expression one of barely controlled rage. “It’s not natural! Bailey’s a rabbit and should be with his own kind! Not some stinking fox that can barely talk straight!”

Fiona Scampert eyed the other doe with a hard glare. “What do you care? You only noticed him after he started hanging out with the vixen. Why the sudden interest?” Her golden brown eyes narrowed as a cruel smirk pulled at her muzzle. “Or are you just looking to add a Hopps to your bedpost scoreboard? I mean, they are about the only family that you haven’t bedded anyone from, right?”

“So I have a healthy bunny urges,” Tara countered as she crossed her arms over her chest. “So what?!? At least I’m not doing the dirty with a pred!”

“That or you just want what you can’t have,” Fiona told the other bunny in a condescending tone. “Don’t you have half a dozen bucks on speed dial that you can while away your time with?”

“That’s not it!” Tara snapped, her face feeling hot under her fur as her temper got the better of her. “What kind of place is Bunnyburrow going to be if more of this kind of stuff happens?” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the rabbit and fox that stood a few stalls down completely oblivious to her hostility. Slowly Tara’s expression turned from one of outright malice to one of conniving smugness. “I’ll catch up with you later. I’ve got something I need to take care of,” the doe told the other bunnies rather suddenly, ignoring the sounds of curiosity and inquiries as she darted off into a small ebb of the festival crowd.

“Is something wrong?” Dixie inquired with a worried expression.

“No,” Fiona said as she reached into her small bag and peered in at the contents, smiling when she saw what she was looking for. “Tara’s just being her normal flighty, bitchy self.” The doe palmed the item that had been sitting in her purse and looked around. The best place was a small set of picnic tables in a copse of trees that were set on a small rise far enough away from the crowds that she wouldn’t be discovered and also had the good fortune of being downwind of the fair. “Now it’s time for a little relaxation,” Fiona crooned. “You up for some?”

Dixie looked at what the other bunny had in her paw, her honey brown eyes widening in shock. “Is that…?”

“It’s nip, okay? You gonna go tell on me?” Fiona said as she closed her paw on the small pawrolled cigarette. “This is what keeps me from having an aneurism when dealing with Tara.” She turned and took a few steps to the small stand of trees. “You in?”

The other bunny shrugged and followed along, a little nervous but not wanting to jeopardize her social standing with the most popular does in school. “Sure,” she replied weakly. “Um…what’s it like?”

Fiona smirked a little as the moved away from the crowd. “Tastes like mint and it’ll make you feel really good, Dixie. That’s all that matters.”

*****************

Bailey held Riina’s paw as they moved further into the fair proper, Nick and Judy tagging along at a short distance. Both the young buck and vixen occasionally turned back to reassure themselves with the looks that some of the other families in attendance were giving them. Nick and Judy ignored the glares and the muttered comments fell on deaf ears as they paid attention to the sights and sounds of the stalls and attractions. “You know?” Bailey began, “I think I’ve figured it out.”

“What are you figuring?” Riina inquired as they paused near a game where the object was to get a ring to land on any one of twenty five glass plates. Mammals, mostly young, wound up skipping the rings all the way across to the other side of the stall with looks of disappointment and chagrin thinking that they almost had it.

“Well, Judy and Nick don’t mind all the looks and things some of the mammals are saying because it doesn’t matter what others think. All that matters to them is that they’re together and that they love each other.” Bailey smiled as he touched the fox’s cheek. “And I think that that’s how I’m going to be. I don’t care what these folk think. I’m yours and you’re mine and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?”

The effect was immediate and Riina’s head lifted as a smile spread across her muzzle, her tail wagging behind her as she thought about it. “Yes. I am thinking that this is all that matters,” she agreed.

“Good!” the buck said and gave his vixen a kiss, not caring anymore about what the reactions of the other fair goers was in response. “Now I think I’m going to go over here and win my pretty platinum fox a prize!”

“Hold on, Squirt,” Nick whispered as he and Judy drew close. “It’s rigged, of course. They oil the plates so even if the ring doesn’t bounce off it’ll slide. There’s a trick to this, though.”

“You know about this kind of stuff from before you became a reformed fox, didn’t you?” Judy inquired.

The red fox gave his wife his smarmiest grin. “Of course! But I never used it to take money from kits. Even at my worst there were certain lines I wouldn’t cross.” That Nick said all of this while standing up straight and proud with an expression of moral superiority caused the two rabbits to laugh.

“Nick used to be something of a scam artist before he met Judy and became a cop,” Bailey whispered to Riina. “Mostly it was scamming rich people out of their money.”

“That is terrible!” the vixen husked in shock. “Foxes are already having horrible reputations!” She turned to Nick with a look of consternation. “Shame on you!”

“Whoa. Easy there, cupcake,” Nick said as he held up his paws. “I saw the error of my ways and turned things around. I’m a pillar of the community, now!”

“He’s just afraid I’ll arrest him if he misbehaves,” Judy stage whispered to the vixen and her brother.

“Um, yeah, that, too.” Nick jerked his chin at the game. “The trick to this one is to get the ring wet. Believe it or not it helps it stick to the oil on the plate.” 

The red fox stepped up to the booth and dropped down a few dollars and got a pawful of plastic rings. Nick then snagged his wife’s drink and took a sip, though it was less for the carrot and fruit smoothie it held than the condensation on the side which he used to get his thumb pad as wet as possible. He ran his pad over the ring while making it look like he was concentrating. The toss was more of a lob and the red ring landed on the plate with a little bounce and spun a little before settling. The same thing happened with the next four tosses.

“And I’ll take the ginormous fluffy pink bunny, thank you,” Nick told the game mammal with half lidded eyes and a wide, condescending grin.

“Wh-what? How’d you do that?” the raccoon running the stall asked in bewilderment as the toothpick that had been in the corner of his mouth fell to the ground, his muzzle gaped open in astonishment.

“Simple physics,” Nick replied. “You see, if you take into account the co-efficient of temperature, humidity and air with the assumed tensile strength of the plate and the resiliency of the ring, you get a variable that-“

The raccoon’s eyes began to glaze over with some of the words that Nick was using, the red fox using his paws to try and explain as well with a serious, studious expression. “Yeah, yeah…whatever,” the game mammal muttered with a frown. “Here!” he said as he shoved the stuffed bunny at the fox. 

All four watched as the raccoon stepped to the nearest plate and ran his finger pad along the surface, the tell-tale glistening of oil on his pad along with a visible smear on the plate itself.

“Do you even know what you were talking about?” Bailey asked as all of them took a few steps away, Judy cooing over the disgustingly pink and insipid expression on the plushie as her husband handed it to her.

“Not really, but neither did he,” Nick said with a toss of his head at the game booth. “Rule number one of con artistry: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh-“

“Nicholas Piberius Wilde!” Judy snapped, cutting her mate off. “Will you please refrain from corrupting my siblings?”

“But I’m family, too, now!” the fox pointed out. “It’s my duty to help Bailey win goodies and prizes for his lady love, isn’t it? Besides, I only use my superpowers for good, now.”

The bunny looked at her husband with an accusatory glare. “You better behave or you’ll find yourself sleeping on a couch the rest of the time we’re here.”

Nick sighed theatrically. “No one understands me,” he lamented.

“Maybe not, but what else can you show me?” Bailey asked with a mischievous twinkle to his topaz colored eyes. When Riina jerked her head around to stare at the buck with open mouthed astonishment, the rabbit gave her a wink before darting in for a quick kiss.

******************

Lunchtime saw both Judy and Riina loaded down with all manner of toys, prizes, candy filled plastic baubles and a few goodies that weren’t just inexpensive fair swag. The platinum vixen looked at the mass of brightly colored faux furred toys with outrageously large eyes or glittery things. “What am I going to be doing with all of this?” the vixen asked, her voice muffled by the sheer number of plushies.

“Ah,” Nick said with another smug grin, “that’s an even easier question to answer. You find a group of kits…” he turned his head left and right and saw a group of about two dozen, all of them bearing the signs of not quite the same level of prosperity that others at the Bunnyburrow celebration showed, little hints that Nick was all too familiar with from his own formative years. “Ones that look like they could use a bit of cheering up.”

Bailey could only look at Nick with a moment of disbelief as the red fox led the way, a glance at Judy getting a nod. Within moments every single one of the kits had not only a new toy, Nick making it sound like he was getting the better end of the deal so he wouldn’t have to carry all of his loot around the fair, and the mammals that had watched lost a little of their jadedness. As that was happening, Judy slipped a paper roll out of her small shoulder pack and put a shiny, gold colored ZPD Junior Officer stickers on their chests.

“Just remember, Bailey,” Nick told his young brother-in-law as he put a paw on his shoulder, the red fox’s voice oddly thick, “only use your new found powers for good.” All of them watched the kits run off excitedly.

“Okay,” Bailey said as Riina’s paw slipped into his, the vixen’s eyes looking slightly glittery. “That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”

“Now you know why I became a cop,” Judy said with a light chuck to her brother’s shoulder. “It’s not always about bad guys and making a big bust or spectacular save. Sometimes it’s just about the little things and making a difference.”

“Yeah,” Bailey mumbled. “I can see that.” He glanced at Riina, the only thing she’d kept being a small keychain with a plastic rabbit that had something similar to Bailey’s colors. Both were smiling until the rabbit’s phone went off. “Carrot sticks!” he muttered. “We have to get to the booth for our turn. You’ll bring us some lunch?”

“Yup!” Judy said as she hugged the young rabbit and vixen. “We’ve got this covered. Hurry up and go before Jeremy blows a gasket. You know how he is when he’s late for lunch, too!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun with this little chapter and sort of reminds me of my first week working at Disney World after I got out of the Army. I had a sack full of swag from orientation and the shop I worked at was the first and last kiosk that guests saw. There was a young family that had finally saved enough for a Disney vacation but the little girl that was there with her mother and grandmother was sick. Fortunately they had a week pass but to cheer her up I gave her half of the goodies I had to cheer her up. Sure enough I saw them the next afternoon and everyone was feeling better and had a great time, but I won't forget how down she was and then how that smile came through with just a handful of pencils bent to look like Mickey. It was a little thing, yet it made a difference.
> 
> Ain't that the way things normally go, though? 
> 
> That and I like showing how Nick was compared to what he became after meeting Judy. That never gets old! :D


	10. Chapter 10

The second day of the Carrot Days Festival had Bailey running the Hopps’ produce stand with his brother Jeremy and half a dozen younger siblings with the older rabbits taking care of the cash box and writing down orders from customers. The morning had started off rather well as the younger Hopps had spent the night at Riina’s parents’ house, the young couple deciding that until they graduated and were established in their careers that they would try to spend equal time at their families’ respective homes. It was a bit more peaceful for the young buck at the Kettu’s as there weren’t hordes of younger siblings all trying to see the silver and snowy colored fox, the younger kits absolutely enamored with her soft fur and fluffy tail, though Nick had tried to warn them and often took the brunt of the tussle-and-play instead of the young vixen.

As such Bailey was surprised when Riina woke him with gentle nuzzles to his neck and teasing kisses and licks to the sensitive edges of his ears and blinked his smoky amber eyes open to find his mate kneeling on the edge of the bed, a tray of fresh baked pastries and coffee filling the room with their thoroughly heavenly aroma.

“Good morning, my handsome buck!” Riina whispered before giving the rabbit another nuzzle and soft, languorous kiss.

The bed was a bit firmer than the one that Bailey had back in his parents’ burrow so that when he pulled the fox to him the tray barely stirred. Riina laughed musically as the surprisingly strong rabbit hauled her onto his lap with a grin and plunged his face into the soft ruff of fur around her throat and neck, his blunted teeth nipping at her skin beneath the multi-layered coat of argent and white. The effect was dramatic to say the least and Riina had pressed her body against his, head thrown back with her eyes closed as her muzzle opened slightly and a sort of high, purring growl escaped her throat.

“I’m thinking that it is a good thing I’m waking you early…” the vixen cooed as her tail twitched upwards at the continued attentions of the rabbit. “And you will be needing your breakfast this morning.”

“Oh?” Bailey inquired through the thick, warm fur. “Why’s that?”

Instead of answering verbally, Riina let the growl of pleasure rumbling through her to deepen slightly before actually pouncing on the rabbit. She looked down into his startled eyes, her own blue ones heavy and warm with anticipation as her tongue lolled out in rapid panting that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. As realization began to dawn on Bailey, Riina darted forward and nuzzled her cheek against one side of the buck’s head before repeating the action on the other.

As the vixen pulled up a little, Bailey’s nose was filled with Riina’s scent, the sweet, pleasant musk that was all her and no one else. His eyes grew wide as he realized that she’d marked him, the gesture causing an absolute deluge of emotion to fill his chest as it also stole his breath. It took a few more seconds for him to detect the flowery scent that accompanied the marking and as he was finally able to draw in a deep breath, the buck’s eyes rolled back before closing in absolute bliss. “Oh…carrot sticks…” he whispered.

Before Bailey was even aware of what he was doing, there was nothing between him and Riina save their own fur as both were filled with a sort of passionate urgency that was made even more intense by their youthful enthusiasm. He shivered at the feel of the fox’s fur against his, the way their different textures seemed to weave together in an unexpected and wholly erotic manner. The nuzzles and kisses took on a slightly more frantic and desperate energy and when they joined it was with a thrill of electric warmth that stole thought and breath. Riina shifted slightly as she loomed over her rabbit, her muzzle open, jaw trembling slightly as they started to move together, a flash of awe and hunger in her sapphire eyes that made Bailey want to cry in joy.

“Bailey?” the vixen asked tremulously as their heated ardor neared its crescendo. “Will you be marking me…?” she whispered. “I am wanting everyone to know that I am yours.”

The buck could only nod, his mouth open as he gasped for breath, his eyes staring at the fox above him, their paws locked together and their fingers clasped as tightly as their bodies connected in other places. By the simple expedient of straightening his arms he brought Riina down so that she lay across the entire length of his body before rubbing his chin deep into the fur of her neck and throat before also doing the same to her head between her ears and down her long, tapering snout. When he was done he watched as the vixen’s eyes glazed slightly and her nose wriggled furiously as she drank in the unique scent of her rabbit mate.

Riina shivered, the smell of Bailey’s personal aroma filling her as she was tumbled into the abyss of absolute pleasure, the combined sensations etching themselves in the vixen’s memories that she would carry until her last breath. Bailey scent was like the late spring to her, full of the essence of living things and a renewal of life after a long winter, redolent with promise of so many warm days to come, of pastel sunsets and glorious nights. It was the sort of smell that meant home and all things good and the vixen fought not to roll in that scent, to bathe her entire body in the perfume of her lover.

Then both lay together, their hearts beating a counterpoint to the other in near perfect synchronicity as they panted for air, each immersed in the delectable afterglow that suffused them both. When their bodies calmed, Bailey and Riina simply looked at each other before they started laughing and embraced warmly, rolling to their sides so that it was easier to cuddle.

“You know, that’s one heck of a way to wake up,” Bailey said as he gazed at the vixen, his soft pads caressing the fur of her muzzle and cheek while the other was wrapped around her body to hold her close.

The vixen made a soft sound of amusement. “It is just as wonderful to find an eager rabbit appreciating me as you did yesterday!” Riina replied with a playful lick to the buck’s nose. “I am seeing that the tales of rabbits being very…affectionate are true!”

“Couldn’t help it,” Bailey told her. “I mean, I woke up and there was this gorgeous vixen just laying there like something from a dream.”

She smiled as her paw found his ear and ran the length of it between her thumb and finger pads. “Are you saying I am pretty?” Riina inquired with a coquettish look.

“Nope,” the buck answered. “Beautiful, gorgeous…er, smokin’ hot…” he chuckled. “Pretty just doesn’t seem to really say it.”

The vixen smiled at the things Bailey said, nuzzling her entire body into his with a soft chirping sound as a smile stretched her mouth. RIina had only let herself enjoy the closeness for a few more moments before kissing the rabbit under his jaw and reluctantly slid off the bed. “It is breakfast time.” Surprisingly the tray had stayed where it was throughout their activities and the fox took great pleasure feeding it to her mate, occasionally teasing him with the next bite. Once he was finished they helped each other get cleaned up and dressed, taking care to subdue the scent of each other they wore, though there would be no mistake about their status to anyone with a halfway functioning nose.  
Ilona and Tapio were already gone, heading to Gideon Grey’s shop to make the first delivery of apples, and Bailey helped his vixen clean the dishes before they stepped outside and headed to the truck paw-in-paw.

*****************

Jeremy Hopps set the stack of newspapers under the counter next to the paper bags for customer purchases and looked around. Four of his younger siblings were making sure that the different vegetables were out along with some of the last fruits of the season before spotting his brother and the fox that he’d become mated to approaching from one direction, and Celeste, a pair of cups with hot cider in a pasteboard carry tray approaching in the other. The rabbit was still a little stunned at the relationship his younger brother was in, meeting the vixen and falling for her to the point that they’d actually formed a surprisingly deep bond, and all within the span of a couple of weeks. 

Then again, Bailey had never been what any of the Hopps would really call a normal rabbit. He was too much like Judy in some regards, bound and determined to eschew tradition and find his own way no matter what, but it was more than that. He didn’t act like a rabbit, and never had. He might look like a lagomorph on the outside, but he wasn’t like the rest of their siblings and numerous cousins. Jeremy had talked to his Dad about it, that the younger buck had a sort of empathy for other mammals, but that still didn’t quite cover it.

Jeremy shrugged as he double checked the cashbox. He guessed as long as Bailey was happy that was all that really mattered, and his little brother certainly seemed happy, as did the vixen on his arm. 

“You look deep in thought,” Celeste said as she leaned over the counter and held out one of the cups of hot cider to the buck. “I’d say a penny for your thoughts, but this is better.”

“Yeah, it is,” Jeremy replied with a smile before leaning forward to give the coyote a small peck on the side of her muzzle, not seeing the look that flitted through the canid’s eyes that she was hoping for a little more than that. “Looks like this morning’s going to be our best time. Look at all the mammals already showing up, and the fair doesn’t really open for another hour.”

“Mm-hmm,” Celeste hummed, her ears lowering slightly. “That’s not what you were thinking about, though.”

Before the buck could say anything Bailey stepped into the booth, Riina hanging back slightly while the other Hopps kits called out different greetings. “Oh, hey! Is that cider from Tapio and Ilona? Theirs is the best!”

Celeste nodded as Jeremy continued to organize the area around the cashbox, along with small tablets for delivery orders. “Yeah. Gideon’s selling it at his stall,” the coyote said. “Do you need any help?” Celeste asked Jeremy, again a little disappointed at the buck’s sort of distracted manner.

The older Hopps rabbit stood and shook his head. “No. I think we’ve got it in paw.”

“Of course we do,” Bailey said with a grin. “I mean, all of us have been doing this since kindergarten, right? You’re just too uptight about little details!” he teased.

“Details are important in what I want to do,” Jeremy replied. There really wasn’t much else that could be done except wait. “Hey, Celeste. Why don’t you take Riina around and get to know her? You two haven’t really met yet, and then we can meet up for lunch later when Cooper and Halley take over.”

The coyote jerked slightly at the suggestion while Riina tilted her head quizzically. “I…suppose,” she said, not really sure if this was something she really wanted to do.

“Sounds like a plan,” Bailey added as he reached out and took his vixen’s paw. “I mean, you two already have a lot in common, right?” He didn’t see the almost identical looks of reluctance on either coyote and vixen and leaned over to give Riina an affectionate nuzzle and lingering kiss before smiling. “And I’ve got a great idea for lunch, but it’s a surprise, okay?”

Riina nodded and gave her rabbit a gentle touch to his face. “I will be seeing you later, rakas,” she said softly with her own nuzzle before stepping to the side of the booth to wait for the coyote.

As the two females walked away, Bailey looked at his brother, having noticed the way that Celeste had been waiting patiently for something else from the older buck before sighing and joining Riina. “Um, are things cool between you and Celeste?” he finally inquired, his expression slightly concerned.

“What?” Jeremy said as he looked up from where he’d been counting boxes of different vegetables and marking them off on a notebook. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t think anything’s wrong. Why?”

The younger buck shook his head. “Nothing, I guess. Just…well, you kind of ignored her just now.”

“I did?” Jeremy asked with a drop of one ear, trying to recall the last few minutes. “I mean, I’ve got a lot on my mind. Making sure that things are ready to go here, and when I head back to school we begin the surgical portion in class…”

“Maybe,” Bailey told his sibling. “But you’ve always been one to sort of tune out on the things around you when you were focused on something else. Don’t let that happen too much, okay? Celeste is a nice girl and you can be a little dense when you’re distracted.”

Jeremy chuckled as he gently punched his brother’s shoulder. “What? You find a mate and suddenly you’re an expert on relationships or something? C’mon. We’ve got customers.”

The younger buck turned to help the mammals that approached the stand, though he wasn’t convinced and hoped that Jeremy, as much as he loved his brother and admired him for his decision to become a doctor, didn’t wind up doing something wrong. Then he devoted his attention to the family of woodchucks that were eyeing the selections of produce. “Welcome to Hopps Farms!” he greeted them with a level of cheerfulness that he didn’t really feel.

****************

Riina and Celeste walked together, though not closely, ambling past booths and games that different mammals were setting up for the day. No few of the stands that held different challenges with prizes available had barkers that eyed the platinum vixen warily, remembering the red fox that had demonstrated far too much knowledge with how the games worked and had claimed far too many of the toys and baubles on display to entice youngsters.

It might have been small of her, but Riina felt glad that she’d opted for a skirt of stone washed denim in blue and white and loose short sleeved summer blouse of teal in comparison to Celeste’s choice of small male’s button down and faded blue jeans that were a little baggy. She also took a great deal of pride in the manner that her fur was groomed, the softer than normal fur for a fox brushed and conditioned to a glossy shine where as the coyote had a rather unkempt appearance. To the vixen it was yet another difference in cultures, her mother and grandmother having raised her with the necessity of tending to one’s appearance and grooming. A good deal of it was less for vanity than necessity as Finland could have rather intense winters and a properly maintained coat was vital for warmth and general health.

The coyote almost seemed ambivalent to her appearance, and there was a distinct undertone of fuel, oil and solvent, the harsh chemicals having a noticeable effect on the canine’s fur.

As for the clothing, Riina wanted to look good for Bailey. She enjoyed the manner that he gazed at her or watched her when she walked and moved about. She felt that looking good for him was simply an expression of her affection and it made him feel good as well. Celeste, however, seemed to dress solely for her own comfort, not that that was a bad thing, but it was a strange concept. If one were going to be so careless as to their method of dressing, why not simply go around in nothing but their own fur? The vixen was quite sure that with a few alterations to her choice of shirts and perhaps a little conditioner to her fur along with attention to a thorough brushing, Celeste could be one of the most attractive canids in the whole of Bunnyburrow, despite her rather unexciting and common colors. Even the subdued earth tones the coyote sported could look fabulous with the right combinations of style and color. That and her thin frame could be absolutely elegant if she would stand a little straighter without slouching.

So far as Celeste was concerned, there was just something about the fox that seemed a little…off. While they were technically part of the general group of canids as well, Riina’s scent wasn’t quite right like it was a little off, and then there was the added hint of the intimacy that the vixen and Bailey had recently shared despite attempts at cleaning. She didn’t really fault the two, Jeremy telling her that, for some reason, the two had imprinted on the other and were bound as tightly as any mated mammals he’d ever seen and she was genuinely happy for the young couple. Unfortunately that little hint of her and the young buck’s status only served to remind her that her own relationship with the older Hopps brother would never reach that sort of level.

Riina also seemed a little, well, snobbish. She moved as gracefully as a dancer, her fur looked like something a model would have, silken and glossy with colors that the coyote couldn’t help but be jealous of. Then again, what mammal in her right mind wouldn’t be envious? Compared to the fox, Celeste knew that she looked so plain and ordinary as to be invisible. It was just one more minor disappointment in a life that was full of such things, and Celeste expected no less.

“Um…so, congratulations, I guess,” the coyote told her companion for the moment.

Riina was pulled out of her contemplations of an ensemble that would look good on Celeste consisting of loose shorts, a simple tank top and vest in browns and chocolates that could complement the other female’s fur shades. “Congratulations for what?

“You and Bailey. Being mates. I mean, that’s kind of a big step. And brave with both of you still being in school and all.”

“Brave? With both of us being as we are I suppose it is.”

“Well, even beyond that,” Celeste said with a wave of her paw as if the inter-species aspect were a nonissue. “I mean, do you have anything planned?”

Riina shook her head. “No. Nothing yet. Though with our families we will be having support.”

“Yeah. Families…” the coyote said with a small, sad smile.

“Bailey was saying that you have no family,” Riina said softly. “Is this being true?”

Celeste shrugged and shoved her paws into her pockets. “I never knew what happened to my parents. I was raised by my Uncle. He was a gypsy mechanic. Worked all over the country and took me with him.”

“Gypsy?” Riina asked with a twitch to her ears. “One of the traveling mammals?”

“Not a real gypsy like you might think,” the coyote clarified. “He was just a guy that traveled from place to place, never really settling down anywhere. I think he just like to keep going, see new places, meet new mammals. I don’t know what he’s doing now. I haven’t seen my Uncle since I was sixteen.”

“But how did you get schooling if you were always to be moving?” Riina inquired. Her parents had always emphasized the need for an education, and the young vixen did her best to follow their advice. That and there was the joy of learning. Even her ability to speak English was improving, particularly as she’d only been using the language for a little more than a month and a half.

Celeste shrugged again and absently kicked at a pale colored pebble, her head lowered a little. “My Uncle taught me to read early on and the rest has been practical experience ever since. I got math down by doing parts counts and measuring layouts, mechanics and engineering from paws-on work. As a cub I spent a lot of time in libraries. I love reading everything. Still do. So I got all sorts of science and history and a ton of literature.”

“But no…diploma? That is the word?” she asked with a slight moue.

“No. All I’ve ever really needed was my driver’s license and welding certificate,” the coyote admitted. “Some places want certifications for factory warranty work, or maybe a Union card, but I can pick those up as I need them. In the end they’re just pieces of paper that tell me what I already know.” She smiled slightly. “They’re more to make the mammals I work for look good for having a ‘certified technician’. Then they get to charge a little more for the work I do.”

Riina could only nod in response, the bohemian outlook somewhat alien to her. She’d been raised to believe that formal credentials were tantamount to being considered successful and that the recognition for an education was virtually the key to everything. Then there was the itinerate nature of the coyote’s life. To have land of one’s own was the most prized of accomplishments. At least that was how the vixen was taught to believe. She and her family were new to Bunnyburrow, but her family had their own orchard, making them more responsible and productive members of society.

Didn’t it?

The vixen frowned as she found her conceptions challenged. After all, she was the newcomer to a very different culture than that of what she’d known Finland, and maybe she was the one that was looking at the coyote’s situation improperly and unfairly.

As the fox turned over things in the silence of her own thoughts, Celeste glanced over after a moment, seeing the frown on the other female’s muzzle. A small surge of irritation rolled through her, sure that the vixen was judging her, a reaction typical of the few other mammals that the coyote had encountered and opened up to.

The silence that fell between the two was a little strained and uncomfortable as both realized that after all was said and done, neither would really be friends. They could be civil to each other, but anything resembling friendship was not really an option.

“Hey, um, look,” Celeste began, wanting nothing more than to distance herself from the fox and far too wrapped up in her own thoughts. “There’s some things I forgot I need to take care of back at the shop. Could…well, could you let Jeremy know I’ll, uh, I’ll see him later?”

Riina jerked a little at the disruption of the quiet that had fallen between them and nodded. “I can do this,” she agreed, trying not to let her own thoughts reveal themselves on her face or in her body language.

Unfortunately the behavior of both females only served to increase the misconceptions both had regarding the other and each breathed a sigh of relief as they went different directions. Celeste rounded a corner, realization that she was more than a little jealous of the fox’s relationship with the younger Hopps buck, the fact that she was fairly well off, and that she had one thing that the coyote had never really known the joy and support of; a family that cared for her.

No, unfortunately Celeste realized that she and the vixen were from two very different worlds and the only thing that they had in common was their attachment to Hopps bucks, though in the coyote’s case, that connection seemed to be fraying.

As she rounded the corner of one of the stalls, trying to quell the feelings of hurt and annoyance when she ran into one of the other mechanics she worked with at Pablo’s farm and tractor supply. Paul was a good mechanic, thorough and astute, able to diagnose problems almost as if he had a sixth sense that enabled a certain level of empathy with the machines he repaired. For a wolf he was fairly nice, polite, but he and the others at the garage in back of the main store had their own loose pack that Celeste wasn’t a part of. It wasn’t from any sort of conscious exclusion, it was simply that Celeste’s life hadn’t really led her to bond to others in a meaningful manner, and her concept of a pack was rudimentary at best.

“Hey, Celeste!” the wolf said amicably enough, a grin stretching across his muzzle. “Little early for some of the attractions, aren’tcha?”

The coyote shrugged. All of her interactions with the other canid had been only what was necessary at work as colleagues and little else. In point of fact, Paul and the other two wolves looked at her as if she were a cub, a competent and talented mechanic, but still a cub and of neutral gender. “I guess,” she answered. “Actually I was just leaving. I want to get an early start on that Tee-Fourteen for the Garrisons.”

“Oh,” the other said. “Mind if I walk with you, then?”

Celeste again shrugged. The wolf might not have noticed her before, but she’d noticed him, though had been too timid to approach him or the others directly. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“So, what do you think of the fair?” Paul asked innocently enough as he mimicked the coyote and stuck his paws in the pockets of his jeans and ambled along with the girl to the exit.

****************

Riina was completely distracted as she wandered around the stalls, still a little confused by the short time spent with the coyote. The vixen was having trouble reconciling her confused feelings regarding Celeste, and try as she might just couldn’t put into any coherent thought of why the other female seemed to rub her the wrong way. It wasn’t that Riina didn’t want to be her friend, it’s just that they really had no common ground to begin with. The fox was impressed with the stories of Celeste’s ability to mend machines, to take apart engines and put them back together, and repair the most complex of farm equipment, but these were all things that Riina didn’t really find any interest in whatsoever. 

If anything, Riina wanted to continue her studies to become a fashion designer, hence so much interest in trying to help Celeste at first. She was sure that she could make the coyote absolutely stunning, but now there was a trace of doubt in that the other would accept the offer for what it was. And there was also the vixen’s own feelings of specie-ism that she truly didn’t care for, nor the feeling of superiority that she had something that the older girl didn’t. 

Riina was disgusted with herself for these feelings and walked around the fair, instinctively dodging and weaving through the crowd of other mammals as she examined the reasons for her prejudices.

****************

Tara Lagotelli skipped a little as she returned to the happily ambling crowds of the Carrot Days Festival, feeling rather carefree with the nip-stick that Fiona had shared with her. It gave her a happy, warm feeling all over, the sweet, mint flavored smoke banishing the thoughts that had been giving her so much grief lately. Then the bunny saw her. Suddenly the good feeling was replaced with a disgusted rage. Who the hell did that fox think she was, anyway? The hatred that Tara glared at the vixen with could have burned holes into steel and the doe actually felt her lips lifting from her teeth in a feral snarl.

Then a thought burst through the colored fog of the bunny’s mind and realized that if the fox were walking around the festival by herself, it meant that she wasn’t with Bailey, and the last place she’d seen him was the Hopps’ produce stand.

Whipping around with enough speed to actually stagger herself until she got her feet under her, Tara scampered off to the stand that was on the other side of the festival grounds.

She couldn’t explain why she suddenly had it bad for the buck, but Tara had come to the conclusion that Bailey Hopps was the only one for her. If she could get him into her bed, she was convinced that she could keep him forever. And being part of the Hopps family meant that between them and her own family, the doe would never want for any possible comfort ever again. She might even concede to give the buck a few little brats to keep him from ever straying away.

It was funny, really. All through the years she’d known Bailey Hopps, Tara had never really seen him as something desirable. He’d been skinny, even for a rabbit, gangly, and unremarkable. All that changed that day in the school gym. As captain of the volleyball team, Tara hadn’t wanted Riina on the team, already taking a dislike to the vixen that was in a couple of her classes. They hadn’t wanted or needed some filthy pred on the team, hence the prank with the dye in her shampoo and the red marker on her clothes after shredding them. If they’d been lucky it would have chased the fox away from Bunnyburrow West High School altogether.

But then Bailey had to go and get involved.

It wasn’t just that he had helped the vixen after Tara had tripped her. Oh, no. It had gone much farther than just that.

And to top it all off the bunny realized that Bailey was imminently desirable now. Gone was the knobby, too-tall young buck with spindly limbs. He’d filled out and put on an impressive build, his surprising interest in gymnastics providing him with a liquid grace that was absolutely delicious, and the way he looked in the tight outfits he wore made the doe feel an overwhelming need to change her underwear. He made her want him like Tara had wanted no other buck since she first began experimenting with her sexuality in middle school.

Then he showed up to school with the fox and the way they’d acted had made Tara want to scream in frustration, unsure whether she wanted to be angry at the end result or throw up.

Now, though, he was separated from the vixen and there was an opportunity to get to him without that disgusting fox to get in the way or sink her claws further into the rabbit that Tara wanted more than anything else. Just as the Hopps’ stand came into view, Tara felt a thrill run through her as the buck was alone, the rest of his siblings running off to go get lunch. It was the perfect time to corner him and she was sure that just having him to herself for a few moments would be all that was needed.

****************

Bailey assured Jeremy that with the nearly complete lack of customers that he could handle the stand while the older buck took their younger siblings to lunch. “Besides, as soon as all of you get back I’m going to go ahead and duck out so I can have lunch with Riina,” he said with a sort of happy smugness.

Jeremy made a face. “Okay,” the older rabbit said with a chuckle,” now I finally understand what some of my fellow med students meant when they talked about newly mated couples. You know you’re really being disgustingly sweet and all, right?”

“You know I don’t care, right?” Bailey tossed back with a smarmy grin.

“You want me to bring you back anything?” Jeremy continued as the younger Hopps kits descended on the area of the fair that held the food booths like an invading army.

“Nah. I can hold out until Riina gets back.”

Jeremy tossed a wave at his brother before following their younger brothers and sisters, his thoughts already turning to the stand that had grilled carrot shreds with squash and zucchini along with spinach and watercress folded into a flatbread.

Bailey used the relative quiet and peace to rearrange the displayed vegetables and fall fruits, making a note that some of the more popular items this year were their farm’s hardier greens and the variety of potatoes. He made a note for his father before jerkin up straight as his tail puff was tweaked and an unwelcome voice crooned at him.

“Hi, Bay,” Tara said in a honeyed tone.

“What do you want, Tara?” the buck asked with a dark edge to his voice and a scowl on his face. “And get back to the other side. You aren’t supposed to be in here.”

“Don’t be like that!” the doe said with a giggle as she looked around before grabbing a modest carrot, plucking it out of the wooden bin and pointing at the rabbit with it. “So, where’s your pet foxy?”

“Enjoying the fair,” Bailey retorted. “Seriously, Tara. Out. You aren’t supposed to be in here and I sure as hell don’t want you in here. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I really don’t like you.” When he glared at the bunny he noticed that her eyes seemed kind of glazed and her pupils were dilated awfully wide, not to mention there was a cloying, minty aroma to her that seemed off. “Just leave.”

The bunny played with the tip of the carrot against her lips while she ran her fingers up and down the length of the root suggestively. “You know, Bay, you didn’t have to go and find a pred to play with,” she told him, edging closer and backing the young buck into a corner, enjoying the nervous glint in his eyes that showed just beneath his irritation. “I’d have let you on my playground if you’d wanted.” Tara continued her advance, her demonstration with the carrot becoming more lewd with each passing second. “I don’t know why you want that fox anyway. A warm bunny would be so much sweeter, you know.”

“You really are something, Tara,” Bailey snarled softly, his brows pinching together as the fur bristled around his neck and spine as his ears folded back. “And I don’t want anything to do with your ‘playground’! Considering there aren’t many bucks you haven’t hiked your haunches for I’d say it’s more of a mud pit. Now get out.”

A flash of anger flitted through the slightly dazed eyes of the doe. “C’mon, Bay. Don’t be like that. I bet I can show you things…” the bunny cooed as she continued her advance. “Do things that she can’t…” The doe sucked suggestively on the tip of the carrot before sticking it further into her short muzzle then pulled it out with a soft ‘POP!’ and smiled lasciviously. “I can prove it.”

Bailey was torn between anger and disgust and pushed past the doe in frantic desperation. The attempt was wrecked when Tara got between the buck and the space that led out of the stand. She caught the rabbit, her arms surprisingly tight as they were thrown around his neck and Tara pulled Bailey in for a sloppy kiss, even going so far as to nip at his lip hard enough to split the skin.

Fury boiled up in the rabbit but before he could stop what was happening a strangled sound made his ears shoot straight up and he found a devastated Riina staring at him with heartbroken disbelief, her paw to her muzzle as her other paw went limp, spilling the paper tray of food that she’d been bringing to her mate for lunch onto the dusty ground. With a snarl Bailey pushed the doe that had latched onto him with enough force so that Tara spilled onto the dirt, grunting as she sprawled on the ground, a malicious look of glee on her face as she caught a glance of the retreating vixen.

“Damn it!” the buck hissed as he glared at the bunny who sat up, her legs spread obscenely open towards him. “Stay away from me you psychotic bitch! Just leave us alone! Leave ME alone!”

The display had drawn the attention of multiple mammals, the least of which were Bailey’s older brother and younger siblings as they came back with bags of food and drinks. Jeremy approached the altercation with a frown. “What’s going on?” he asked sharply, his brow furrowed as he set his lunch down on one of the shelves.

“Ask her!” Bailey snarled and flung a paw out to indicate the doe. “Comes in here and tries to rub herself all over me while talking shit about Riina!” He did his best to rein in the urge to lash out at the bunny before turning to his older brother. “I gotta go find her. She saw…this thing trying kiss me.”

“Go,” Jeremy said simply, Bailey already running before he finished that one word. The older buck then looked at one of his sisters. “Go get the deputy that’s over by the parking area,” he told her quietly. “Hurry.” Melidy was almost as quick to react as her brother, the fourteen year old obsessed with track and field and took off with a speed that was nearing something that Judy could pull off. Even if Bailey hadn’t been aware of it, Jeremy knew the reek of nip when he smelled it and the doe that was busy brushing herself off displayed all the signs of having recently nipped up, which would explain the glassy eyes and sexually aggressive behavior she’d already demonstrated.

The day was just shaping up to be an absolute peach the buck thought to himself as he passed by the doe who seemed a little lost for the moment, making sure he was in a position to put himself between her and his brothers and sisters if she got uppity. Topped with the troubles he felt coming in regards to Celeste, Jeremy wondered if his father had anymore vodka stashed in his study for systemic therapy later that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I did work with Steve Gallacci to coordinate this little bit with his Celeste story. Where Riina and Celeste are concerned...sometimes things like that happen and that connection for friendship just doesn't take. It's neither good or bad, it just is. And you can't really be upset with either character as they really do come from essentially different worlds. It happens.
> 
> And at this rate I'll have the entirety of this particular story up in a couple of more days.


	11. Chapter 11

Bailey scampered through the stalls and crowd of the Carrots Days Festival frantically searching for Riina, the platinum fox having become the central part of his life and the thoughts of what she might be going through had his gut in icy knots. Every time the buck saw a flash of white or light, silvery fur he would dart in that direction only to discover that it wasn’t the fox and the search would be on again. It wasn’t until Bailey neared the barn that various kits put on plays for the festival every year that he heard a small sound and paused, his ears snapping up and swiveling left and right. With the sound came the hint of fox scent mixed with his own he stepped carefully to the small overhang on the far side that had been built to keep bales of hay out of the weather.

“Riina?” he called softly, the buck’s agitated state growing worse by the second. “Are you ove-“

Bailey was caught under the surprisingly strong bundle of white and grey fur, the fox’s tackling leap catching him off guard as they both tumbled into the loose straw between tightly bound bales, Riina pinning the rabbit beneath her as she looked down upon him. Her sapphire blue eyes were almost electrically intense as her nose worked furiously scenting his fur as her lip curled up revealing her glistening fangs.

Bailey had no idea how long they actually stayed like that, his heart beating a rapid tattoo in his chest. When Riina jerked her head and tooth filled muzzle a couple of inches closer, her nose working rapidly, the buck flinched, ancient instincts filling him with a primal flash of fear.

“I can smell her on you,” the vixen growled softly, her ears pressing hard against her skull before she shook her head in revulsion with a high pitched, soft growl sounding from deep in her throat. 

“I-I came looking for you…” the rabbit said weakly, the fox’s behavior concerning him. “I thought…well, I thought that you’d be hurt by what happened. I didn’t do anything, I swear, Riina!” When the vixen growled again it caused another trill of fear to run through Bailey. “Are…are you okay?”

“No,” she snarled softly. “I am not being ‘okay’! I am very angry right now.”

The buck swallowed hard. “I can see that.”

“You are being my mate, yes?”

“Of course!”

“We have shared marks. Is this also correct?”

“We did,” Bailey answered with a nervous flutter in his chest.

Riina’s eyes narrowed as her teeth remained exposed. “This morning you made love to me before we were trading marks, yes?”

“We did and it was wonderful, Riina!” the rabbit agreed in a fervent whisper. “I don’t want anyone but you!”

She continued to stare at the buck beneath her, her paws that rested on his wrists flexing, though her claws dug into the straw and wood planks beneath and not into Bailey’s flesh. “I had to leave because I was very much wanting to hurt that little hompsa! She dared to violate my territory…my mate!” Riina’s lips slowly slipped back down over her teeth as her ears started to rise. “How are you to be feeling if you were to find me kissing another male while his paws were all over me?”

“I’d be pissed! You know that!”

“Yes. And you would have every right to be feeling this way. Just as I am having every right to be hurt and angry.”

Bailey experienced a moment of clarity and understood. What Tara had done was perhaps the worst thing possible as far as Riina was concerned…well, next to the buck bedding another female in front of her. Nick had told him that foxes, when the mating bond was established, became very territorial of their partner and like other mammals that mated for life, could almost go savage when another encroached on that union. It was flattering that the vixen felt that way, but it was also sobering.

And Bailey would truly have it no other way.

“That’s why I was angry, too, you know,” he told the vixen looming over him. “I’m yours, Riina. I always will be. It’s like I’ve waited all this time for you and now that you’re here, you’re all I want.”

The vixen sniffed the air around the rabbit’s head and neck, snuffling deep into the ruff of his throat. When she lifted her head her blue eyes were still rather intense but her expression had softened. “I want you to know that if I had scented even the smallest hint that you were lying to me you would never see me again.”

“I’m not lying, Riina!” Bailey said as a feeling of sickening dread filled him at the thought of the vixen disappearing. “I love you!”

“I know this,” she whispered as her mouth once more drew close to his. She continued to stare for several long moments until the furious light in her eyes faded. Being as close as the two were, the rabbit could feel the changes in the vixen as her breathing slowed and her heartbeat calmed a little. “Now, kiss your mate,” the fox said with the hint of a smile that faltered as her expression grew concerned and pained. “She has been having a very bad day.”

All it took was the touching of their muzzles, gentle touches and nuzzles to undo the angst of just a moment before. Then the make out session became quite intense rather quickly and at some point Riina had released Bailey’s paws, which had somehow found their way immediately into the fur of her back as their kisses deepened and grew more impassioned, both parties not enjoying the contact as much as they needed it.

When they both parted for much needed air Riina expressed her forgiveness with another quick nuzzle. “I think that I have had enough of this festival today,” she told him softly. “Can you be taking me home now?”

Bailey nodded and reluctantly stood, hauling the vixen up into a short, heartfelt hug before the pair ambled back to the main thoroughfare of the fair, the paw that wasn’t holding on to the fox’s working the screen of his phone. “I’m letting Jeremy know we’re out of here.” As soon as he saw the message was sent the buck started to guide his vixen to the other end of the stalls until Riina’s slight pull on his arm stopped him.

“Where are you going?”

The rabbit nodded in the direction of the vendors. “I still haven’t had lunch and now that the crisis is mostly past I was hoping to get something to eat,” he told the fox plaintively. “I need food, sweetie.”

“No,” Riina said firmly. “I will be taking you home. If my mate is hungry, I will cook for him.”

“But…we’re right here and…”

“I will cook for you,” Riina said firmly. “And if you are good and eating everything, maybe I will be giving you a special treat afterwards.” Though her tone had been hard on the edges there was no mistaking the look in her eyes at what she was intimating.

The buck blinked several times before looking at the vixen with a growing grin. “Home cooked sounds really good right now!”

“I thought you would see it like that,” she replied, wrapping her tail around his legs as they turned and walked towards the parking lot. “A very special treat,” she cooed as her head came to rest on the rabbit’s shoulder.

Neither paid any attention to some of the looks that were shot their way by other fair goers, concerned only with each other and the feeling of being close.

*****************

“Well, I don’ see this doe now,” Deputy Orkins said as he looked around the Hopps’ produce stall before tucking his notebook back into a pocket. “That, an’ no offense there Jeremy, but it ain’t like y’all rabbits is havin’ a reputation for bein’…well…a bit lib’ral with y’alls affections an’ whatnot,” the pig drawled as he tipped his hat up to scratch at his head while his other hoofed fingers hooked into the belt that was all but invisible beneath the roll of his prodigious belly. “An’ she ain’t here now, so alls I can do is take yer word she’s all nipped up and file a complaint.”

“So you’re going to do nothing,” the buck stated with a frown. 

The Bunnyburrow Deputy cast a beady eye at the rabbit as he squinted in the midday glare. “I can’t go ‘round hasslin’ folk just ‘cause other folk says they’s doin’ this or that, Jeremy. Ya know this. We got reg’lations we has ta follow an’ y’all just can’t go ‘round sayin’ things like that without proof. She bothers y’all ‘gain, just call an’ we’ll come help, but at th’ moment there’s just nothin’ I can do.”

The buck sighed, a feeling that no good could come of the situation but realizing the futility of arguing with what had to be Bunnyburrow’s most lazy law enforcement officer. “Yeah. Whatever.” With a sigh of exasperation he watched the porcine officer waddle away, though not without plucking a peach from the display and rubbing it on his sleeve before devouring it. 

It wasn’t until things began to settle, two more of his siblings that were nearing the end of high school came to take over that Jeremy realized that Celeste wasn’t there for their lunch date and shook his head. Carrot Days Festival had never seemed this complicated when he was younger and headed out with a brief word of warning about the doe that had accosted Bailey before departing for the day, a frown on his muzzle.

****************

Riina was learning her way around the Hopps’ kitchen and as soon as the pair made it to the farm set about cooking Bailey one of his favorite dishes of stuffed cabbage rolls, making sure there were plenty for any of the other rabbits that wanted some. As the vixen was what Stu and Bonnie considered part of the family, time spent at the Hopps’ household was normally in the kitchen helping out and learning to cook and prepare food the way her buck had grown up on while teaching Bailey’s family about Finnish dishes. None of parties involved had thought that her cabbage rolls would be so popular with the large rabbit family. 

Bailey leaned back and rubbed his stomach with a completely content expression, the disaster past and things once more the way he felt they should be. Riina placed the plates that held their food in the soapy water of the sink and gave them a quick and thorough washing before putting them in the next one to be rinsed when her rabbit appeared next to her and took over. She arched an eyebrow at the buck, her tail twitching in a way that belied her amusement that she kept from her expression.

“And what are you doing?” the vixen inquired.

“Helping.”

“I am to be needing help?” Riina challenged, her muzzle already pulling into a smile as she put her damp paws on her hips in petulant defiance.

Bailey shrugged as he slipped the plates into the drying slots of the drainer. “No. But I can help if I want to, so, nyaah!” he replied and stuck his tongue out at the fox. When the vixen stepped closer, so near that he could feel the warmth from her body, Bailey swallowed hard. When she placed a single finger on his chest, her claw tip adding the faintest bit of pressure that caused Bailey’s heart to suddenly skip a beat, he swallowed again. He loved it when she used her claws to entice him, a decidedly un-rabbit like response to the petite predator.

“You are thinking that I am being weak, little rabbit?” Riina asked as she teased the fur beneath his shirt, her smile turning into a grin as she felt his body react to her touch, his breath speeding up. That she had such an effect on her mate was thrilling and delicious. Though it was only fair as all Bailey had to do was to look at her and Riina felt as if she were on the verge of melting from her heart outwards.

Bailey smiled. “Nope! I’m smarter than that,” he replied while leaning in for a kiss that was thwarted when his vixen turned her head. “Really?” he complained in feigned irritation.

“You are going to have to prove that you are wanting me more than that bunny that was being all over you today,” Riina said. “No kisses until you are earning them.”

“And how do you want me to earn a kiss?”

The look that the vixen gave was challenging and, despite her best efforts, full of playful affection as she lightly tapped the buck’s nose with a finger pad. “You are having to catch me!” she exclaimed before darting off out of the kitchen and all but leapt down the stairs that led deeper into the Hopps’ burrow.

“You tease!” Bailey replied with a grin as he jumped after his mate.

Riina was nearly the same size as the rabbit that pursued her, but her fluid grace and speed demonstrated that foxes were just as agile as any lapin and she darted through the hallways and large rooms with surprising alacrity, giggling delightedly as Bailey pursued her with near unbridled joy. The vixen had discovered that in ancient times it was common for bunnies to entice rabbits into a chase, a method of determining fitting suitors. She’d learned that one of the ways in which to get her mate worked up was to let him chase her, the act triggering something deep within. That she found the role reversal stimulating was only an added bonus.

Several times the buck drew close enough to almost catch Riina, the fingers of his paws lightly combing through the fur of her tail as he tried to grab her, only to have the vixen laugh and dart away as she twitched her tail just out of reach. The laughing and few words traded back and forth caused the few Hopps that were still in the burrow instead of attending the festival to poke their heads out of rooms or branching hallways. One of them was Bailey’s older sister, Marigold, who was in Bunnyburrow for Carrots Days, the yellow furred doe shaking her head with a wide smile as the fox and rabbit pelted past while cackling like mad mammals.

“I see they’re at it again,” Mari commented to her little sister, Lori, the black and multihued bunny frowning at the disruption to what had been a quiet day as the other peeked out of her room.

Lori’s frown only lasted for a moment once she learned who was causing the disruption and felt her own grin spreading across her muzzle. “If you think this is bad wait until you go camping with them!”

“You mean there’s a couple that worse than you and Sam?” Mari exclaimed with a shocked expression.

The other bunny, her fur now a swirling mix of black, pink and purple with day-glow green accents was about to retort when they heard a high yip of surprise followed by Bailey’s cry of success. “Sounds like it was a successful hunt,” Lori commented with a laugh.

“Huh,” Mari grunted in amusement. “Maybe our brother really is more fox than rabbit!”

The younger bunny looked at her sister with a sardonic expression. “You think that Bailey was successful? Ha! Riina got him to do exactly what she wanted him to do!”  
Mari twitched her head to the side in confusion. “But…well, he was chasing her…”

Lori snorted. “It’s called bait, sister-dear. Riina was in charge the whole time!”

The golden furred doe blinked a couple of times. She wasn’t what anyone in her family would call stupid, but when it came to matters of the heart, Marigold wasn’t quite as bright as she was in other areas that she dealt with as a budding reporter for ZNN. Fortunately she had Judy to help her when it came to dating and keeping her from making past mistakes all over again. She was about to say something else when it was Bailey’s turn to make a noise followed by Riina’s cry of triumph.

“And that’s my cue to vanish!’ Lori said as she was pulled back into the privacy of her room by a pair of dainty paws followed by a feminine peel of laughter. 

Mari blinked and shook her head, resisting the temptation of checking on her brother and his vixen. Exercising prudence that had been drummed into her by Judy and Nick, the yellow bunny closed the door to her room before putting in a pair of ear buds and cranking up her music and focusing on a piece for work that aimed to be a culture piece on the coming city-wide winter festival for Zootopia.

****************

Bailey had finally caught Riina when they reentered the main living room area, his paws grabbing her around the waist, his vixen’s squeal of delight fueling his already frisky mood. His cry of victory was cut short when Riina spun in his grasp and grabbed him in return before tumbling both into a pile of beanbag chairs. She mimicked his cry of victory then darted in to nibble affectionately at the buck’s neck even as she nuzzled him with enthusiasm. Bailey sighed as his mate found the places that turned him into a complete hedonist, his paws roaming all over her trim body in fervent strokes, pets and caresses.

Then her muzzle brushed his, smothering the rabbit with kisses until Bailey decided to up the game and began to nip at the vixen’s ruff, her cooing purrs of joy encouraging him further. Before they knew it the young couple was happily involved in a serious make-out session that left both light headed. The fox once more locked her maw to his by slipping her teeth behind his, her body arching against the buck as she held his paws out in a bit of play to keep him from touching her, asserting a little bit of dominance play. All in all it was most enjoyable and they lost themselves in the moment, both more than a little distracted with their blood and ardor up.

At least they enjoyed the moment until both were startled out of their bliss by a high pitched screech.

“Mommas! She’s eatin’ him!” a kit screamed, her eyes wide as she bounced on her feet and pointed at where the mixed couple lay in the pile of beanbags.

Bailey had somehow wound up on top, both he and Riina jerking their heads up at the interruption, each looking at the little bunny with complete embarrassment and chagrin. When Bonnie Hopps appeared and saw what was happening her ears turned almost as red as the young couple’s. “Oh, my!” 

“I was finkin’ Riina was nice an’ she eatin’ Bailey’s face!”

“Hush, Abigail. She’s not eating your brother. Come along,” the older doe said with an apologetic wave to her son and his mate.

“But she was eatin’ Baileys! It was digussin’!” the bunny kit said as she was dragged away by her paw.

Bonnie chuckled warmly. “There’s going to come a day when you won’t think things like that are disgusting. Now come along.” 

“No! I wanna watch Baileys get et!” Abigail persisted. “When she’s done eatin’ Baileys can I haf his room?”

Riina and Bailey looked at each other for a long moment before both burst out laughing. “I am thinking that maybe we should wait until we are in a more private setting,” the vixen told her mate as he stood and helped her to her feet. They took great pleasure in straightening each other up and tugging clothing back into place.

“Yeah,” the buck agreed. “At least someplace where my nosy little sisters can’t watch.” He started to head for the room he sometimes shared with his fox when they spent the night in the burrow. “That and this will give me a chance to calm down a little.” 

Riina rubbed herself against his arm as they made their way to the buck’s room. “What makes you think that I am wanting you to calm down?” she asked seductively. “You are still owing me for today, naughty rabbit!”

****************

Tara pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at the name, not familiar with the sender for the message and opened it up with a frown. The doe only looked up for a moment, a smirk pulling at her muzzle as the deputy sauntered past without even looking at her. That buck, Jeremy Hopps, had tried to keep her from leaving but there was nothing he could do to stop the bunny from leaving the stall after Bailey ran off.

She blinked for a moment as she read the message, then reread it to make sure she was seeing what she thought she saw.

:You want Bailey and I want him free of that stinking fox. Meet me at Carrie Boo’s ice cream stand at 5:00 and we’ll talk about what we can do so we can both get what we want.:  
The doe looked around before typing in a reply on the touch screen. 

:Who is this?:

:You’ll see.: was the reply moments later.

Curious as to who this unknown individual was, Tara felt her mouth twisting into a frown before considering what it might mean to have an ally in her efforts to get the rabbit that she wanted while seeing to it the lousy vixen that thought she could just show up and disrupt everything got what she deserved. It was disgusting how Bailey and his pet fox carried on and the doe ground her teeth in frustration. The others didn’t understand, even Fiona, but then that was only to be expected. Lately the only thing that Fiona was good for was scoring a bit of nip and listening to Tara’s rants on the interspecies couple.

Speaking of, Tara looked in her shoulder bag and saw that there was still some nip and plenty of time before she had to meet this mystery mammal. Unfortunately with Deputy Orkins presence she’d have to be a little more discreet about where she lit up and began to saunter to the far side of the field that fair goers had parked their cars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little romance, a little humor and a little more insight into characters and such!
> 
> And little sisters. Jeebus.... ;)


	12. Chapter 12

The smile that graced the vixen’s face fully exposed her teeth, white, sharp and glistening. The bunny that regarded her with suspicion and a touch of fear only added to her glee.  
“Why do you want me to do this? What do you get out of it?” Tara asked with a slight quaver to her voice.

“That’s simple,” the fox said as she brushed her jacket out of the way before sitting on the wooden table, drawing her legs up as she tilted her head to regard the doe. “It gets you what you want, which is that Hopps buck. As for what it gets me, well, that really isn’t your concern, is it?” She saw that the timid female wasn’t quite getting the plan that had been laid out and frowned. Were all the rabbits of Bunnyburrow really this dense? “Yes or no, a rabbit mating with a fox is unnatural, right?”

Tara nodded slowly, her mouth twisted into a moue of distaste.

“Foxes should be with foxes, rabbits should be with rabbits, and so on and so forth, correct?”

Again the bunny nodded slowly.

“Then it’s simple. You get me what I want and I can use that to break the fox and rabbit up. Hopps and that stupid vixen split up, you move in to make him feel better. In the meantime the entire thing comes crashing down which helps me. As I said, it’s that simple.”

Tara looked at the vixen with distrust. “So what do you care? What do you get out of it?”

“I get something that I’ve wanted for a long time.” The fox cast a glance around to make sure there were no other mammals in sight and smiled once more, noticing that the bunny shivered at the expression. “And I can even pay you for your trouble.” She reached into her jacket and found the package that resided within. It had been so easy to discover the little doe’s dirty secret and held up the dime bag of Nip. “You get what I’ve asked for, you keep getting these. Now, do we have a deal?”

Tara’s mouth almost started watering at the sight of the Nip and her paw was already moving when the vixen pulled it out of her reach. “Yes,” the bunny answered timidly. “Deal.”

“Good girl,” the fox cooed with a satisfied smirk. “Each day you can send me a text to meet you after school at that old abandoned theater and you can give me whatever you’ve managed to get. In return, I get you more Nip.” She let the bunny pluck the package out of her paw and stuff it in her little purse before leaning close, her expression turning cold and deadly serious. “And Tara? If you think that you can cross me, if you fail to get what I want, if you try to tell anyone about me, remember that I know where you live. I can make your life an absolute nightmare. Do you understand?”

The bunny nodded, her acquiescence causing the vixen to smile, though there was no warmth or mirth in the expression. She watched as the fox stood and straightened her short skirt and jacket, both made of faux leather and only added to the vixen’s appeal and intimidation. When she patted Tara’s cheek condescendingly, it was all she could do not to scream.

“Give your grand daddy a hug for me, won’t you?” the fox whispered in her ear, the shiver that ran through the doe causing the vixen to chuckle coldly as she walked off.  
Tara sat there for a few more moments, her mind spinning as she wondered just what she’d gotten herself into. The one point that comforted her was the promise that when whatever the vixen had planned, Bailey would be hers…

*******************

The Hopps household settled down to something akin to normal, or at least as normal as things ever got, as soon as the Carrot Days Festival wrapped up. Jeremy and several of the other Hopps children returned to school, some living on campus for colleges that were well out of town, others staying at the farm and going to the Bunnyburrow Community College. Judy and Nick had returned to the city, their vacation time over with, though both had ensured that they’d be available to talk to Bailey and Riina, with an open invite for the young couple to come visit them if they got the chance.

For Bailey the following weeks meant as much of a return to routine as was possible. A few hours before and after school were spent in gymnastics practice and three nights a week saw him staying at the Kettu household with Riina. They’d learned quickly that many of the younger bunnies loved the fox, calling her ‘The Other Fluffy One’, the first being Jeremy’s former girlfriend, Celeste, and would mob the petite vixen at any given opportunity. With several dozen enthusiastic bunny kits, it was trying at the best of times.

The most challenging aspect as far as Bailey was concerned was a return to school and potential encounters with Tara who was now number one on the rabbit’s list of mammals to avoid. Fortunately an entire month had passed without incident or encounters, almost as if the insane doe were avoiding him and Riina, of which Bailey was perfectly fine with. As they progressed towards the end of October he and Riina had started discussing what college would mean for their relationship and the career paths that both were considering. As was standard for the small coterie of friends they met up for lunch in the school.

Riina waited for her mate at the entry to the cafeteria with Lori, her girlfriend Sam, and a rather depressed Garret Woolerton who was sans girlfriend and feeling more than a little left out as Bailey finally appeared and greeted the vixen with an affectionate little nuzzle. 

“No problems today?” the rabbit asked as the group made their way to the serving line.

“Just my history report got colored on by my little sister,” Garret said as he let the others go first. “Apparently Mr. Flockheart didn’t care for the very random magenta and pink highlighting Della used.”

Bailey chuckled as he playfully pushed the ram. “I was asking Riina, but thanks for the heads up on your sister’s editing skills.”

The vixen shook her head. “There were no confrontations in gym class. I think she is ignoring me, which I won’t complain about. There’s talk about Tara quitting the volleyball team, though.”

“Are you going to try out for the team again if she does?” Lori asked as she snagged a pre-packed salad and carton of fruit and wheatgrass juice.

“You should,” Sam added, the cream and yellow bunny agreeing fervently. “I’ve heard others saying that until you were tripped you were doing really well.”

The vixen shrugged. “I think it would be best if I simply focused on other things. That and one of the school counselors is recommending that I take advanced courses because my scores finally arrived from my school in Finland. She thinks that I’m farther ahead than what was originally thought.” Riina noticed that Sam was staring at her in surprise and it caused the fox to pause in a sudden surge of self consciousness. “What?”

“Wow! You’re speaking a lot better than when we first met! You almost sound as if you could’ve grown up around here!”

The insides of Riina’s ears pinkened slightly and she lowered her head a little, though it was by no means the same timid way that she’d acted just a few short weeks before. “I hope I’m getting better. I’ve only been speaking English for a couple of months. If I’d been thinking clearly I’d have taken the courses sooner, but we lived too far out in the country and at the time there just wasn’t a need.”

“I’ve never had trouble understanding you,” Bailey whispered in her ear with a grin.

“That’s because she was speaking a language that rabbits are already familiar with!” Lori teased, her paw on her chest as she pantomimed a beating heart.

Garret was frowning as he turned back to his friends. “You know, it looks like Tara’s avoiding everyone. Not to mention she looks like shit.”

Both Riina and Bailey glanced at the table the doe in question was sitting at on the far side of the cafeteria. She was indeed alone, her sole focus being her phone, and it was also true that she didn’t look like she normally did. Gone was her immaculately groomed fur, her coat looking a little rough and shabby as if it had gone unbrushed for a couple of days. Her ears were down and she looked a little too thin for a healthy bunny. No one thing was enough to really raise any sort of alarm, but when put together it seemed clear that the doe was on something of a downward spiral.

“Jeremy said he thought it smelled like she’d been nipping up that day at the festival,” Bailey said quietly. He shook his head. “It sure looks like something’s wrong.”  
Riina frowned. “Should someone talk to her, maybe? This doesn’t seem good.”

Lori raised an eyebrow while Garret and Samantha stared at the vixen in disbelief. “Waitaminute,” the ram sputtered. “The Queen-Bitch-Doe herself sets out on a crusade to make your life as miserable as possible, tries to rape your boyfriend…sorry, mate, at the biggest fair in the county, says some of the nastiest stuff possible about you, and you want to talk to her and see if you can fix what’s wrong? Are you serious?!?”

“It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t have friends. I haven’t seen any of her friends around her for quite a while,” Riina pointed out. “It is terrible and painful. Maybe she just needs-“

“Will Miss Riina Kettu please report to the Principal’s Office,” the public address system said, cutting the vixen off before repeating the message twice more.

“What’s that about?” Sam asked no one in particular.

The platinum fox shrugged. “Perhaps they want to talk about class rescheduling with my transcripts finally arriving.” She looked at Bailey. “I’ll see you in the gym for practice?”

“You know I’ll be there!” the buck said with a laugh before giving his fox a chaste kiss and watching her depart. Then his eyes fell on Tara who also eyed the fox as she walked by before shrinking in on herself and turning away.

Bailey couldn’t explain why, but he had a sudden knot of nervous dread and nausea lodge deep in his gut.

***************

“Hey! Fox! So what do I get for twenty? A little muzzle time?” the young stag asked with a leering grin as thrust his pelvis lewdly at Riina until she passed to the other side of the hallway, some of the other males around him laughing with expressions that were just as crude. 

A fluffle of rabbit does eyed her with open hatred and stepped back as the vixen passed them, their noses twitching in agitation. “Slut!” one of them hissed with venom while another also disparaged her a bit more loudly.

Other words followed, each one worse than before and her ears filled with single syllable words that she’d only recently learned the meanings for. Words that caused her to lower her head and flinch whenever someone looked at her, regardless of the species of the mammal.

A rabbit buck in a crowd of others smacked her rump with enough force that had it not been for the fox’s thick fur there would most likely have been a pawprint left. Another reached up her skirt. She was groped a few more times before making it to the office in tears, though the mammals that were tending to the administrative aspects of the school were hardly what one would call sympathetic and eyed the young vixen with hard glares that bordered on contempt.

In all it was enough that by the time Riina made the Principal’s office her tail was dragging on the floor even though the majority of it tried to press into the backs of her legs and her ears did their best to disappear against her skull. 

The Principle was a Mr. Lambert and the small ram looked up through his horn rimmed glasses as the young fox knocked softly on his door. “Ah. Miss Kettu. Please come in and have a seat. Your parents should be here shortly and we can discuss the grounds for your expulsion.”

Riina blinked as her stomach twisted with dread. “E-expelled?” she whispered. The word was almost as bad as some of the epithets that had been tossed at her on the way to the office and all she wanted at that moment was to either runaway or curl up and die right on the spot.

Mr. Lambert gave her a cold look but remained tight muzzled, though the animosity in his eyes was clearly evident.

Fortunately the quivering young fox didn’t have long to wait as her parents entered the school office like a thunderstorm. Not surprisingly Mr. and Mrs. Hopps were right behind them. Red and silver foxes stepped to either side of their daughter and placed comforting paws on her shoulders, each one in such a towering fury that they couldn’t help but bare their teeth at the imposed threat to their daughter.

Not that Bailey’s parents were in a better mood, Mr. Hopps was so angry that his toes were actually curling and uncurling as his claws dug into the carpet and his paws were clenched into fists trembling with rage. “Why are you expelling Riina?” Ilona Kettu demanded before the Principal was able to begin his introduction.

“Put simply? Sexual misconduct,” the ram said as he flipped his personal laptop around for the parents of the two families to see. “This site that shows Riina Kettu engaging in…well, to be honest I’m not sure what most of this is other than disturbingly obscene, but this is being linked to several web sites, including this school’s! We’ve already contacted the appropriate authorities, of course, including protective services and other county agencies.” Images in different windows depicted the vixen engaging in very explicit sex, some singularly, others with more than one partner with rather crass words that would flash up on the screen

“That is not me!” Riina protested as tears coursed down her cheeks and she pointed at the screen with a trembling paw. As she tried to explain herself the stunned fox lapsed into her native Finnish until she finally gave up and simply collapsed sobbing into her mother’s embrace.

“Well, turnip worms! Apart from her name being plastered all over the flippin’ screen what proof do you really have that…that…this,” the rabbit said as he gestured to the laptop with a paw, “is really her? I got kits in first grade that can put pictures together! Make themselves look like movie superheroes all the time!” Stu ranted, his ears and nose turning a dangerous shade of red. “And anyone can…” He glanced at the screen, his eyes narrowing. “Who is that…NICK?!?” The rabbit fumbled for his glasses and plopped them on his short nose as he squinted at the computer screen. “Wait a carrot-plucking minute! That’s my son-in-law’s face, but that’s not him!”

Mr. Lambert looked up with a frown. “I’m not sure I follow, Mr. Hopps. What do you mean that’s his face but not him?”

“I mean it’s his face, but that’s not Nick’s body, you fluffy idiot. One, the color’s all wrong. Two, he was shot in the line of duty and the scars are clearly visible. That’s not Nick and that’s not Riina, and I’ll bet my goddamned farm that you just made up your mind to expel her without looking into this! She’s a good girl and I wish some of my own were more like her!”

“You have to understand that the school’s position on this is quite clear an-“ the ram started before Ilona cut him off with a snarl.

“Of course it is! But don’t you think you should have discussed this first before making accusations?” the vixen asked, her eyes narrowed to mere slits as her ears pinned back against her head. “I think that we will be removing our daughter from your school while we discover just what’s going on. And we shall certainly be looking into bringing charges against you for what you’ve just put our child through!”

“Ma’am!” Lambert said as he held up both hooves. “Please look at it from the administrative position. This is wholly inappropriate and it’s linked to the school’s website! Then there’s her known relationship with other students, that, you must admit is more than a little liberal. Some might even say unnatural.”

“Unnatural?” Mrs. Hopps repeated icily, Bonnie’s ears flicking back as her nose started to twitch, but in outrage.

“Er, the interspecies dating? It’s a bit disruptive to the school’s curriculum and-“

“Oh, it’s going to be more than that,” Bonnie Hopps agreed as she stepped forward to offer her support and solidarity to the foxes. “Bigotry? Accusations without looking into the matter? I don’t think I want my kits in this school, either. You will call each and every one of them to this office right now or I will go and get them myself. Do you know the damage you’ve done to this child?” she asked as she stoked the fur on the back of Riina’s neck

Before the ram could even open his mouth Tapio spoke. “And where were you when our daughter was being bullied, this computer site being very obviously more of the same? I do not remember you offering to help with that situation!”

Stu Hopps had gone quiet and when he grunted with satisfaction the others turned to look at him save Riina who was still crying as she was cradled to her mother’s breast. “The kids will be here shortly. Thank goodness they all have phones, hey Bon?”

“You can’t do that!” Lambert cried trying to regain some modicum of control.

Stu’s eyebrow shot up. “Oh? We can’t? And who’s going to stop us? Got a doe of mine that’s a heck of a lawyer and another that’s at ZNN and you better know about Judy. By the time we’re done everybody’s going to know the truth and by golly I’ll be sure to let as many mammals know as I can that you’re nothing but a specist sweater donor, you wooly ass-hat. Don’t care what no one says! This vixen is a part of our family as much as any of my own kids, as is Nick! And nobody calls my kits unnatural!”

****************

The twenty plus Hopps children in the Bunnyburrow school system that got the message from their father found their parents and the family of foxes waiting outside the school for them. Most of the bunnies and rabbits looked confused, but Bailey, upon seeing his mate’s distressed state ran to her and wrapped his arms around her, Riina being his first priority. She was still sobbing softly and buried her face against the rabbit in a need for comfort and a desire to hide. As he tried to comfort her as best he could, his and Riina’s parents filled him and the older kits in on what was going on. The more Bailey listened, the angrier he got, and the more anger, the quieter. By the time the tale was done the young rabbit pulled off his letter jacket and dropped it on the ground before wiping his feet on it and turned away, the Principal and staff watching as he did so.

It was Lori that summed up the overall feeling, though and while glaring at the ram spit her gum out in his direction and gave him the middle finger of her paw before following her family, dumping text books along the way. 

Just as the last of the Hopps kits got into different vehicles the doors behind Mr. Lambert and the staff that had observed the mass exodus slammed open and they watched with stunned impotence as other students began to walk out, the mob led by Garret Woolerton who made it a point of dropping his letter jacket at the Principal’s hooves. 

“I thought you were better than this, Mr. Lambert. I remember you telling all of us when you were teaching at the elementary school that we had to learn to be the best mammals we could be, that it was going to be our job to make the world better than it was.” Garret shook his head. “You’ve become the kind that makes mammals like Dawn Bellwether look good because you’re nothing but a hypocrite.”

The ram said nothing, though his shoulders slumped as the younger sheep turned his back on him.

By the end of the day Bunnyburrow West High School had thirty nine students and four teachers left in a trend that began to sweep across the county.

*****************

The day after what would come to be known around Bunnyburrow as ‘The Hopps’ Rebellion’ a very disgruntled Judy returned with a pensive Nick. The arrival of the couple prompted a bit of a family meeting with the older kits, Stu and Bonnie and the Kettu family. Judy, upon seeing Riina, immediately went to her with a hug and words of encouragement and support for the hurt vixen. Bailey went to his brother-in-law just as hurt, but the distress was pushed aside from the boiling knot of anger within him.

“Nick? What is going on?” the rabbit asked softly as everyone gathered in one of the larger living rooms, some of the mid teen kits keeping the younger kits out and otherwise occupied.

Nick didn’t answer but gestured for the buck to join his mate. The red fox then looked around the room at everyone as he took Judy’s paw in his. “So you guys found that bogus website I take it?” he began simply.

Ilona Kettu made an indelicate sound while Tapio frowned, the fur around his neck rising as his ears flicked back. “The school expelled Riina over it. The Principal,” the tone he used for the title showing his contempt and fury, “didn’t even bother to inquire about any of this before making his decision! So, yes, we are aware of this thing.”

Nick nodded but it was Judy that spoke. “A friend of ours at ZPD has already proven that the images are heavily photoshopped, but that hasn’t stopped it from causing all sorts of merry hell. Nick’s suspended without pay while IAD is investigating him on charges of statutory rape, engaging in sex with a minor and cub pornography. When Chief Bogo heard, even after evidence was given that it was all faked, he ripped his office door out of the frame trying to open it.

“For now a team is working on finding out who put it up and linked it to so many different sites. The kid working the trace that demonstrated the images were fake is top notch,” Nick told the others in the room. “Whoever did this is good, but our friend Longpaw is better.”

Judy nodded in agreement. “Chris has already uncovered a lot of information and said that he should have the site down by tonight. I don’t pretend to know half of the things he was talking about, but he assured me that he can take down any pictures like that if they show up again. Unfortunately what was already put up will float around the net forever.”

Bailey snorted. “Yeah. That’s all cool about keeping stuff like that from popping up, Nick, but the damage is already done. What I’d really like to do is find the mammal that did this and beat the shit-stuffing out of ‘em!”

“Bailey Hopps!” Bonnie exclaimed with a shocked expression. “Language!”

Nick nodded. “I’m right there with you, Squirt. I really am. Just keep in mind we’ll find whoever did this and once we do he, she, or they, will be going to jail for a very long time as will anyone that’s helped them.” He stepped to the platinum vixen and knelt down, not reaching out to her at all, but he did give the other fox an apologetic smile. “I’m not as concerned about me as I am you. Hang in there. We’ll get whoever did this, cupcake.”

She blinked raw looking blue eyes. “But…why me? Why you? Why am I being shown as…as…doing those things?” Tears began to course again, following stained tracks under her eyes. “I…I’ve only ever been with Bailey. I wouldn’t cheat on him! And at school! They called me…called me names and…” She buried her face in her paws, the only thing keeping her from having a complete meltdown being the arms of her buck slipping around her shoulders.

“I know. Believe me, I know. It was set up to not only make you look bad, but all foxes, it seems.” He reached out and gave the vixen a reassuring scratch behind her ears before standing. “So, the question becomes, who would go to all this trouble to hurt you and hurt me?”

Bailey and Lori gasped at the same time as they looked at each other. “Tara!” the Goth bunny muttered. “She’s been nothing but trouble since the two of you started hanging out!”

Bailey shook his head. “I’ll agree that Tara’s a raving lunatic, but she’s lucky to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time.” At the perplexed expressions around him for those that were unaware of the connection, he filled them in on the bunny’s behavior at the festival and the snarky little comments regarding Riina. “So, crazy enough to do something like this? Certainly. Vindictive enough to make a humiliating webpage? Absolutely? Smart enough to pull it all off? Not even. The thing is, how would she know about you, Nick? Or get enough pics of you for the editing? She can FurBook and Muzzletime, but that’s about it.”

Nick shook his head while Bonnie and Ilona looked at Judy. “May you should go ask her, Bun-bun,” the older doe suggested.

Judy frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Can’t. If I get into the investigation in any capacity other than a possible witness I’ll get fired.”

“That and I told her not to,” Nick added. “I got beat up for it, but she promised to stay out of it.”

“For now,” Judy muttered sullenly.

“So what can we do?” Bailey asked as he lifted his head but continued to comfort his vixen.

Stu answered for everyone. “We go back to life as normal. Or as much as we can make it such. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the damn town thinks. We know that you’re a good girl, Riina. We know you love Bailey and he loves you and you and your parents and all of us…well, we’re family and we’ll get through this because of that. Besides, we’re one of the biggest families in Bunnyburrow. Some mammal wants to start trouble, well, we’ll show them just what trouble is.” The elder buck pounded his paw lightly on the arm of his chair as he spoke and the last was delivered with a jerk of his head. “Mess with me and mine, I’ll show them a damn fight.”

The rabbit found himself nearly tackled out of his chair by a crying fox as Riina threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Poppa Stu!” she muttered into his neck.

Stu looked up as his lower jaw started to tremble and pointed warningly at the other mammals in the room before his expression softened and he returned the hug while patting the young fox’s back. “Okay. It’ll be okay. You’re going to be okay,” he reassured her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huh. Things went a bit sideways there, yeah?


	13. Chapter 13

Deputy Gus Buckmorton shook his head as the paramedics loaded the gurney into the back of the ambulance as he knuckled the space between his antlers. It was bad enough that with the onset of late autumn they were causing the spot right in the center of his head to feel tight, but things like this only added to the sensation that the top of his skull was going to explode. If the young deputy had wanted this kind of mess he’d have done what that Hopps doe had done and gone off to the city. Sure, he had training that was thorough, maybe not as intensive as what the Zootopia Police Academy offered, but it hadn’t prepared him for things like this. How one little bunny could spill out so much blood and still be alive was beyond him. Then there was the sweet, coppery smell of it that mingled with the scent of soap and shampoo that threatened to cause the deer to lose his lunch.

Sighing with the beginnings of a headache and a churning stomach, Gus turned his attention on the aged rabbit that watched the medics wheeling away his granddaughter with wet eyes, his paws trembling on the cane he used to get around. The whitetail deer flipped open his notebook and slipped the pen from his uniform pocket as he placed himself between the rabbit and the bathroom that looked like an abattoir from a horror movie. “Mister Lagotelli? Have you noticed anything lately that might have caused Tara to try and take her own life? Any sort of changes in mood or behavior?”

The rabbit was snapped out of his shock at the sound of the deputy’s rich bass voice and looked up, a small part noting that the deer had to hunch over slightly to keep the tips of his antlers from burying themselves in the plaster of the ceiling. “I…I don’t know…” the rabbit muttered, his honey brown eyes drifting to the blood soaked floor behind the law officer, his pupils dilating as his nose twitched fitfully. “I…I think…”

Buckmorton glanced behind his self and wanted to smack his own head for his stupidity. Things like this just didn’t happen in Bunnyburrow and he was off kilter as well. With a hoof to support the shaken rabbit, the deputy gently but inexorably directed him out of the bedroom and to the kitchen. “It’s okay, Mister Lagotelli,” Gus said softly. “Take your time but try to remember anything you can, no matter how trivial it might seem.”

“Sure,” Lagotelli said. “You know, I tried my best by that girl. I guess it’d be better if her parents were still about. I’m…I’m old. I just can’t keep up with these youngsters as well as I could just a few years ago.”

Gus nodded with a sympathetic smile. “They can be a hoof-ful,” he agreed. “But have you noticed any changes, Mister Lagotelli?”

“Please. I already feel old enough. Call me Ennio. My parents insisted on giving me a name from the Old Country.” The rabbit set his walking stick next to the table and buried his face in his paws and rubbed at his eyes. His once rich brown fur was far more grey than the chocolate color it had once been and had the thin, brittle appearance of more years than he cared to count. “I guess….I guess I noticed her becoming a bit distant about…oh, I guess a month or so ago. I thought it might be from her getting through her teenage years, on the verge of becoming a grown doe, maybe the stress of school and so on.” He snorted in derision. “Sure enough the school isn’t what it was a couple of years ago what with that walk out and everything over that to-do with the Hopps boy and that Kettu girl. Doesn’t seem right, but who am I to say anything? World’s changing and I just can’t keep up with it no more.”

Buckmorton only nodded, not really ready to goad the rabbit anymore than he had to, letting Lagotelli take his time with the shock of the morning’s events. Despite the techniques that were taught in the law enforcement classes at Bunnyburrow Community College, Gus had learned if he showed a little patience and compassion, folk would be more tractable and provide information that they might not even know they possessed.

“It only got worse over the past couple of weeks. Tara started to become more standoffish than was normal for a bunny. Started sleeping in later and later, didn’t want to hang out with friends much.” He frowned for a moment. “I had to close her bank account because she was going through her savings like a fluffle of kits through a carrot patch. Don’t know what she was spending the money on but it wasn’t the normal stuff a bunny would. She wasn’t getting new clothes or anything like that. 

“Started losing weight, too. Wouldn’t eat. Just say something about grabbing something while she was out. Tara was already a fairly thin doe and couldn’t really afford to lose any weight. She’d also get phone calls sort of late at night. I wouldn’t have known too much about those except I don’t sleep to well anymore and wind up sitting up and reading into the wee hours.”

The deputy made notes of everything Ennio said, looking up when the rabbit made a noise to find him frowning. “Was there something else you recall?”

“Yeah, there is,” the aged lagomorphs muttered. “At first I thought maybe Tara had switched shampoos or something, but she had a sort of smell…” the rabbit husked. “It seems odd talking about it. I don’t go around sniffing my granddaughter like a pervert or nothing, but it…well, it smelled like burnt candy. Sort of. Like a candy cane that got hot or something.” He shook his head and frowned deeper. “I can’t describe it better than that. Like someone was burning mint.”

Buckmorton fought to keep his expression neutral. There was only one thing that he knew smelled like burning mint. “Mister Lagotelli…Ennio. I know this is sort of a rude thing to ask, but would you mind if I looked through Tara’s room?”

The rabbit jerked slightly before narrowing sad eyes that sat behind wire framed glasses. “You know something…or you suspect, don’t you?”

Gus wanted to squirm with the intense glare that he was receiving. Ennio Lagotelli might have been a little less than a third of his size, but there was no denying the power in that gaze. This was a rabbit that had worked hard to get to where he was and had learned to stand up for himself. “Um, well, there was a complaint during the Carrots Days Festival and Tara might have been involved in. They said she smelled like she’d been nipping up.”

The frown the rabbit wore turned into a scowl. “Are you saying my granddaughter’s a nip-head?”  
The deer held up his hooves in a calming gesture. “No one’s saying that. But something caused her to cut on herself and the sooner we found out what, the better it’ll be for her.”

Ennio looked as if he was going to refute the accusation, his mouth twisting into an almost feral expression before the anger leaked out of him leaving the old rabbit worn and tired looking. “Hell, Deputy. It’s something I’ve been afraid of finding the truth about. Go ahead. You know where her room is,” he said as his eyes turned towards the table and he waved a paw negligently. “Go ahead and take a look.”

Buckmorton placed a supportive paw on the rabbit’s shoulder before nodding silently and heading out of the kitchen and back towards the bunny’s bedroom. The deer paused at the doorway, his nose wrinkling at the smell of blood and pulled a pair of latex gloves from a pouch on his equipment belt before looking around at the most likely place to start.  
One thing that the Deputy was happy for was some of the training and recommendations from Judy Hopps and the ZPD itself, Gus having taken the advice from both to heart. He slipped his phone out and brought up the camera application and snapped a series of images of the bedroom and attached bathroom before beginning a search.

In the movies and on TV, cop dramas always had the investigators tossing a place to find what they were looking for. While it made good entertainment, it wasn’t how actual investigations were done. Making a mess only muddled potential evidence, and Gus had called ZPD and other law enforcement agencies to learn what their process was. As he decided to begin with the dresser, the most obvious starting place, Buckmorton took a ‘before picture’ of each drawer before cautiously going through the contents. Apart from clothing of a rather personal nature that the deer felt embarrassed to be rooting through, the first was devoid of anything out of the ordinary. The same could be said of the second and third ones as well. The fourth turned up a marital aid device that caused the law officer to all but slam the drawer closed, the small bottles of perfume and picture frames on top rattling in response.

The next item of furniture was Tara Lagotelli’s dressing table. This time the first drawer yielded disturbing results, the first of which was the heavy odor of mint. He found a small baggie with a zip closure that had a couple of pinches of plant matter that looked like nip, but there was a strange hue to the fragmented matter. Also in the drawer was a glass pipe that absolutely reeked of nip recently smoked and a partial pack of rolling papers.

Gus shook his head as he turned to leave the room when his brown eyes were caught by something out of place and stooped to pick up an envelope that was partially sticking out from under the bed. As he flipped it over Buckmorton saw that there was no specific addressee on the front, just the words in a sort of sparkly magenta ink that said ‘I’m so sorry!’. He set the envelope on the bed and took another picture with his phone before picking it back up and opening it. Writing with the same ink that was on the front filled a sheet of pale pink paper, precisely what a teenage doe would find enticing. As Gus read the words in jerky script, he felt a knot of discomfort form in his stomach. Switching his phone to regular use he tapped the icon that would automatically dial Constable Bullford.

“Hey, boss. It’s Buckmorton. We’re going to need to bring the ZPD into this one,” the deer informed his superior. “How bad is it? Give me fifteen minutes to get to the office and I’ll show you how just how bad.”

***************

“I don’t get it,” Lori said as she watched Riina examine the different bolts of sheer cloth. “White is white,” she grumbled wishing the vixen would select something so they could go have lunch.

The walk out from Bunnyburrow West high school had seen the Hopps clan, along with several other families, receiving home schooling which enabled them to actually enjoy more free time. With Bailey out of town meeting with private schools that were interested in offering him a gymnastics scholarship the Goth bunny had taken to hanging out with her brother’s significant other nearly every minute they were awake. They’d even shared a bed a time or two, Riina craving contact with another having acclimated to sleeping next to her rabbit mate, and Lori simply because bunnies often enjoyed the proximity of others being the extremely social mammals they were.

“Yes,” the fox agreed distractedly, “I could use any shade of white, but I want an off white, or eggshell or antique white because that is how I planned Celeste’s new outfit. It would match her colors better.” She held a swath of fabric up in each paw and scrutinized both before nodding at the one in her left paw. “This one will be perfect.”

Lori shrugged, the differences still lost on her. “You say so. But why did you make that for Celeste, anyway? I mean, she looks good all decked out to the nines, but a skirt, blouse and vest? Isn’t that a bit extreme?”

Riina shook her head and put the bolt into the small cart when her eye was caught by a selection of antiqued brass buttons. “When we first met I wasn’t very nice, I think. She told me about some of her past and I was terribly judgmental. She’s quite smart, very talented in what she does, and because I was a bit of a snob I didn’t realize that she is a very sweet and caring individual. I think I acted superior because of what Bailey and I have and she didn’t, and I wasn’t very pleasant about her own relationship with Jeremy or her past.” The fox sighed as she tossed a small packet of buttons into the cart. “I was a bitch.”

The bunny blinked before a smile crept over her muzzle. “You know, I think you might be picking up the language a little too well!”

“Perhaps,” the vixen agreed. “But it’s true. Besides, it makes me feel good knowing that I could make your little brothers’ and sisters’ ‘Fuzzy One’ feel as beautiful as she really is. Celeste is worth it.”

“Why didn’t you become their fluffy one?” Lori inquired with genuine curiosity. “You have a softer coat, after all.”

Riina shook her head. “I don’t want to replace Celeste. I can’t. That and she loves the smaller kits and they love her. I couldn’t take that from her. It’s bad enough the way I’ve already treated her. She really is quite remarkable and I wish that I was more like Celeste now that I know her a little better.” The vixen paused at another rack that contained bolts of dark cloth, one of them a textured black that had subtle swirls of dark purple that vanished completely until the light hit at the right angle. “Now, I was thinking about this for your vest and-“

“And it can wait until after lunch!” Lori chortled. “I’m starving here, Riina!”

The fox sighed as she rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. “I want to get this now. I’ll meet you at Gideon’s café.”

“Are you sure?”

The vixen nodded, her attention already being drawn by a fairly tight mesh that sat on the same rack, thinking that a pair of elbow length gloves would go well with what she was planning. “I’m sure. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

The bunny nodded before leaving her brother’s mate once more fondling different fabrics. It wasn’t as if she and several other Hopps does didn’t have things made by the fox. Even the little ones had different plushies Riina had paw sewn for them in bright, durable cloth and seemed to fit their personalities. 

Lori had little doubt that the fox could make quite the comfortable living in Zootopia with her talent in making clothing, having an uncanny ability to formulate designs and colors for any mammal she met. Why, the outfit that she’d already made Celeste was testament to that, combining earth tones with a mid-calf pleated skirt, simple blouse with an abbreviated collar and matching vest that made the coyote look positively gorgeous. In fact, Celeste had looked so good that Lori had been tempted to ignore the fact that she was already with someone, and Celeste was decidedly straight, and flirt with the canid. Jeremy was, in her opinion, a dolt for letting their relationship fizzle. They’d parted friends, though, so there was at least that.

Gideon’s was only a few doors away from the fabric shop and as she pushed the door open the little bell above tinkled cheerfully.

“Y’all have a seat and Ah’ll be right with ya!” came the red fox’s deep drawl from the direction of the kitchen where the serious baking was done. It was only a little after midday and the lunch crowd had already departed leaving the small but neat café completely empty.

“No hurries, no worries, Gid!” Lori called back. “Just a hungry bunny that’s spent the day following a vixen on a shopping quest!”

The eyes and ears of the red fox peeked around the door jamb, a smudge of white dusting the spot between Gideon’s eyes, and though she couldn’t see it, it was easy to tell that the vulpine was smiling warmly by the way in which his eyes crinkled. “You look right puckish there, Lori. Hungry?”

“Famished!”

“Hold on a sec,” the fox called as he pulled back around the doorway before appearing a moment later with a tray that had what looked like donut holes. “Give these a try. I took your Ma’s carrot cake recipe and made a couple of additions for fritters. Tell me what ya think.”

The goodies had to have come fresh from the oven as they were still warm, and as Lori popped one into her mouth her eyes widened at the explosion of flavor that was as good as her mother’s best attempt followed by a surge of cream cheese icing inside the treat. “Mother of bunnies!” she husked, her eyes closing in pleasure. “Gid…these are spectacular!”

“Does that mean Ah should put ‘em on the menu?”

“I’ll sell you my soul if you do!” the bunny enthused as she plucked two more off the tray.

“So, you said ya were out shopping with a vixen? Ah can only guess yer with Riina,” he said with a smile. “Where’s she at? Got some things Ah’ve been trying with her family’s apples. Can’t keep the pies in stock, and Ah swear if the town had its way that’s all Ah’d be makin’ about now.”

The bunny nodded as she polished off another of the fritters. “She wants to do some more things to the stuff she made for Celeste.”

“Pff!” Gideon snorted. “Saw her out and ‘bout with that wolf from Pablo’s garage. If what she was wearin’ was the outfit you’re talkin’ ‘bout it don’t need no more work. That girl was turning plenty o’ heads! She sure shined up like a new penny, tha’s for sure! Riina sure is a fair paw with some cloth and a needle.”

Lori had to agree with the observation and settled in, asking for and getting a cup of herbal tea while she waited for the vixen in question to show up. After ten minutes the bunny was fairly sure that Riina had found a stash of cloth that caught her attention. By twenty minutes she was starting to grow irritated. After forty minutes had passed Lori began to grow concerned.

“Gideon? Do you mind if I go see what’s taking Riina? She should have been here by now.”

The fox looked around the empty café. “Ah don’ know. We’re awful busy,” he told her with a wink. “Go on. It’ll gimme a chance to get some more tea goin’ and some fresh coffee to perkin’.”

The bunny nodded and slid out of her seat, retracing her steps back towards the fabric store. Oddly enough, the only one that Lori found was the bored looking ocelot that sat at the register thumbing through a tabloid. “Excuse me,” she asked, approaching the feline. “Is the vixen I was with still in here?”

The cat looked up, one ear dipping down. “She left over half an hour ago, miss. Something about going to the café down the street.”

“Half an hour…?” Lori repeated with a frown. “Are you sure?”

Instead of answering verbally the ocelot printed a copy of the last transaction receipt and pointed out the time stamp. “I haven’t had anyone else in the store since you and she came in.”

Lori thanked the salesgirl and headed out the door and back onto the sidewalk, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she did so. Because of the time they spent together Riina had her own icon on the phone just after the bunny’s girlfriend, parents and her brother, Bailey, and tapped it with her thumb as she put it to her ear. She listened as the fox’s phone rang on the other end before her ears perked up with the sound of the ringtone that Riina had assigned the doe. A frown pulling her muzzle down, Lori kept her own phone on as she followed the sound of the other into the alley next to the fabric shop and the hardware store next door.

Though she could hear the strains of Gazelle’s ‘Doing Things My Way’, a song the fox said seemed to fit Lori, there was no sign of Riina anywhere. She eventually glanced down and saw the recently purchased iCarrot sitting at the bottom of a runoff grate, the screen illuminated with a picture of Lori that the vixen had snapped while all of them had been at the Carrots Days festival.

“Oh…shit!” the doe swore under her breath as she was transferred to voice mail. With trembling paws she brought up her contact list and found her sister’s number, Lori’s mouth and throat suddenly going dry as her ears folded back along her head and her nose began to twitch furiously.

****************

Constable Bullford tipped his hat back as he looked down at the red fox. “Nick, I ain’t sayin’ that you did what folk are talking about from them pictures on the internet. Heck, I ain’t even going to say that I pretend to know enough about computers and such to really give you an opinion one way or t’other. What I do know is that bunny had pictures of you and Riina on her phone. Pictures that look like they were part of that mess that got put up. Um…you know which ones, yeah?” He waited for the fox to nod before continuing. “Now, if you can just tell me where you were last night. What with the friction ‘tween Tara and the Hopps I have to cover all the bases. You understand, right?” The moose shook his large head as if the request rankled, even though it was necessary. “Look, Nick. I know you’re a good mammal but I have procedure to follow just like y’all do in the city.”

The annoyance melted slowly from Nick’s features as he slipped his paws into the pockets of his cargo shorts and assumed a slightly warmer expression. “I suppose so. And it does look awfully strange,” he agreed. “As for where I was, I was here.”

“I guess you’ve got witnesses,” the Constable stated rather than asked.

“Only two hundred rabbits and bunnies, a few foxes, Gideon Grey, the Woolertons. I think that the-“

“I get it,” Bullford said as he held up his hooves. “I just gotta check. And verifying your alibi won’t be a chore.” The moose sighed as it seemed a great weight was settling on his shoulders. “Nick? You got any idea what the hell has gotten into this town? I swear we get to the bottom of this I’m gonna think really hard about that retirement I been puttin’ off.”

“You said there were pics on the bunny’s phone?” the fox inquired, his eyes narrowing slightly in curiosity.

The Constable nodded. “I sent it to your chief by a deputy I tapped for courier. He should have gotten it about an hour or so ago. We don’t have the know how to deal with this stuff.”

Judy had been listening in on the conversation, more than a little shocked to learn that Tara Lagotelli had attempted suicide, and while glad that the Bunnyburrow Constable had the sense to ask for help instead of trying to run the investigation himself it did irritate her that he decided to question her husband as a suspect. Before Judy could interject her own thoughts on the matter her phone chimed with a generic tone indicating that the incoming call wasn’t really from a mammal she talked to on a regular basis, though answered when she saw her sister’s name appear on the screen. “Lori?”

“Judy! You have to come to town as fast as you can! Riina’s missing!”

“What do you mean Riina’s missing?” the silvery grey bunny asked sharply, her tone drawing both Nick and Constable Bullford’s attention and halting their conversation in mid sentence. “Hold on. I’m going to put you on speaker.” Judy tapped the stylized microphone icon on her screen and held the phone so that the other two mammals could hear what was being said. “Go ahead, Lori.”

“Riina and I were at the fabric store and then we were going to go to Gideon’s for lunch. When I waited for a little more than half an hour I went to see if she’d gotten lost…you know how she is in those places. The cat at the register there said she’d left earlier…maybe ten minutes after me. I tried to call her and found her phone in the sewer grate just a moment ago and she’s not here!”

It was easy to tell from the tremulous sound of the bunny’s voice that Lori was worried, scared, and not sure what to do and was needing more than a little direction. It was a testament that the situation had her worried as Lori was one of the more decisive of the Hopps clan.

“Lori,” Judy said sharply in her best ‘cop voice’, the tone that was guaranteed to get attention and compel mammals to listen to her. “Go back to Gideon’s. Stay there until Nick and I get there. I’m not kidding. Don’t you dare leave, no matter what, do you understand?”

The sound of rapid footsteps and light panting came back from the phone. “I’m going there now,” Lori said, the sound of a tinkling bell following her words. “Judy? Please hurry! I…I’m scared!”

“Hardly,” Judy told her sister in a slightly softer voice, recognizing the sound of the bell to Gideon’s café. “You’re one of the toughest bunnies I know.”

“Oh, duck shit!” the younger doe countered. “You’re the toughest bunny in the world! I…should I tell Gid what’s going on? He’s giving me a really messed up look right now.”

“Yeah,” Nick instructed as he caught his wife’s nod. “He’ll keep you safe. We’re on the way.”

“Okay. Just…j-just hurry!”

Before either Judy or Nick could dash to the fox’s car, Constable Bullford held up his hoof. “That tears it. There’s some mighty unsavory things going on in this town and I need help.” He pointed at the red fox. “Raise your right paw,” he ordered Nick perfunctorily.

“We don’t have time-“ Nick began.

“Yes, we do. Now do it!” As soon as the fox began to lift his arm, wanting nothing more than to mollify the old moose as he could easily stop one, possibly both, from leaving due to his sheer size, Bullford nodded. “Congratulations. You’re now a deputy with all of the blah-blah. Now, let’s go find out just what in Sam Hill is goin’ on here.” He was already loping towards his vehicle in gigantic strides. “Y’all follow me ‘til we can get you some lights and junk or a spare cruiser.”

It only took a few moments for the Constable to get his large SUV on the road heading into town, the vehicle a much older version of the same ones that Zootopia’s police department used, Nick following closely behind as the moose employed both lights and the siren to get the denizens of Bunnyburrow out of his way.

“Can he really do that?” Nick asked as he tapped the brakes before following the cruiser through one of the few traffic lights in the county. “Make me a deputy?”

Judy shrugged. “Technically you’re on suspension even if it’s just for show, so I don’t see a problem with it. At least this way you get to help out and are covered if things go sideways.”

The fox’s frown deepened. “The suspension isn’t real, though. Bogo said it was to keep public griping to a minimum as per city hall and the mayor’s office.”

“Nick, everyone knows those pictures were faked. It’s just a way to keep the peace while all of this is sorted out,” Judy said before cocking an eyebrow and pulling out her phone at the chirping noise. “That has to be your phone ringing.”

Nick nodded and pulled his out of his pocket, doing his best to do so while keeping up with the moose in front of them. “Answer it for me, will you, Carrots? I’m having enough of an issue keeping up with the maniac that this town calls a constable.”

“Nick’s phone, this is Judy,” the bunny answered after glancing at the caller ID and jerking in surprise that it came up as ZPD.

“Hey, Officer Hopps, it’s Chris Longpaw. Is Nick there?” 

“I’m here. What’s up, Spots?”

The serval was one of the rookies that had recently joined the ZPD and had something of a fixation on the fox and bunny, seeing both as heroes and mammals that were worthy of admiration both in their professional capacity and for their private life. While Judy tried to show that they were just two regular mammals that tried to do what was right, Nick found that sometimes the young officer going all kitten on them with wide-eyed adoration was a bit much to deal with. There was, however, no denying the cat was a genius when it came to computers and sussing out information from the depths of cyberspace.

“I did some more digging on that phone that we got from the Bunnyburrow Constable’s office,” the young officer said, the sound of claw tips tapping at a keyboard making it over the rush of air and different engine growls as the Constable slowed upon entering town limits.

“And?” Nick inquired a bit tartly.

“Uh…I’m not sure…”

“Out with it!” Nick growled. 

“Right. Um…do you have a relative named Tracey Wilde?”

Nick blinked once before his paws tightened around the steering wheel of his convertible with so much force that the tips of his claws dug into the faux leather covering before ripping long rents into the material.

“Nick? Who’s Tracey Wilde?” Judy asked cautiously at her husband’s silent rage.

“Dig hard and fast, Chris,” Nick ordered. “And tell Bogo we’ll be calling him shortly. We have a little emergency to deal with at the moment.” He gestured for Judy to end the call as his lips lifted enough to show the tips of his fangs before swearing hotly.

“Nick?” Judy asked, her paw reaching out to touch her husband’s arm in concern. “Who’s Tracey Wilde?” she repeated a little more subdued in tone than before.

With a low growl Nick shook his head as if to clear it and sucked in a breath. “Bad news. The kind I could have gone the rest of my life without hearing from.” He felt his mate’s eyes on him and glanced over. “She’s my second cousin and apart from hating mammals like you and me, is firmly convinced that I’m her ideal mate.”

The bunny recoiled slightly, her face screwing up in distaste. “Nick! She’s your cousin! That’s gross!”

The fox shook his head. “No. She’s distant enough that it wouldn’t be incestuous. The problem is that she is a complete specie-ist and bug-shit crazy. If she’s involved in all of this…”

“And she might have Riina?” the bunny inquired with a scowl.

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Nick answered. “This is just turning out to be peachy as hell.”

Judy gripped the armrest of her door as the little sports car lurched over a small hill crest. “So what do you recommend first?”

“Call Bailey and warn him to keep an eye out and be careful,” he said with a feeling of dread twisting his stomach. “Warn him to stay in populated places or around others.”  
Several tense moments passed as Judy pressed her phone to her ear. When the voice mail kicked in she hung up and redialed only to snarl herself when she was once again directed to leave a message. “He’s not answering, Nick.”

“Send him a text just in case.”

“Then what?” Judy asked, her thumbs flying over the touch screen as she tapped out the message and warning.

“Now we get to the bottom of this,” he replied with a firm voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh! Things are getting a little tense!


	14. Chapter 14

Bailey groaned as he came to, his head a mass of throbbing red pain and misery. He tried to sit up before realizing he was already in a sitting position but his limbs refused to move. As he flexed and twisted weakly he slowly understood why he was immobile as coarse sisal rope was wrapped around his arms with more around his legs. Errant strands had worked past his fur and poked at the skin beneath causing incessant itching that only added to his misery.

The rabbit shook his head to clear it of the fog that seemed to engulf his thought processes and instantly regretted the act and let his chin slump back down as he fought down a roil of nausea deep in the pit of his stomach. His muzzle filled with saliva in preparation for vomiting and he spat automatically willing his body to calm down. Not that it was an option as rabbits were incapable of regurgitating which made the moment that much more hellish. Once he felt more in control Bailey lifted his head and tried to get a better idea of where he was, though the room itself was dark with the only light coming from under a door that looked to be about ten feet or so away.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat in the dark, deep breathing helping to drive away a small portion of his discomfort as he tried his bonds. Bailey wasn’t sure but he thought that the rope securing his left arm was a little more slack than it had been. Likewise his legs had a bit more room to move, that little bit of a reprieve helping his circulation and alleviating small increments of pain from being in the same position for too long. His ears jerked upright when he heard movement and voices on the other side of the door, unable to make them out or what was being said before the distinct sound of a key being slid into a lock preceded the door being opened.

The room had been almost completely dark, though with the door opening the weak buttery yellow light that streamed in seemed as bright as the midday sun and burned into Bailey’s eyes with a lancing sharpness.

“I told Toby to bring you to me, not to kill you,” a decidedly female voice said.

The rabbit watched as a figure blocked most of the light coming from the other side of the doorway. When a trio of naked fluorescent bulb flared fitfully to life, one flickering badly with malfunctioning ballast, it was like spikes being driven into Bailey’s head through his eye sockets and he snarled with the added pain. Once more he almost shook his head to try and clear it of the red tinged fog of agony, though turning even just a little bit only compounded his misery and it was all he could do to lift his too heavy feeling skull. That and there was the feeling of something matting the fur of his head and the side of his face. The smell alone told him that it was blood and a small part of his brain that worked deduced that it was his, hence the throbbing ache near his ear. When he could actually see, some of the pain dissipating slowly, Bailey blinked at the visage of his brother-in-law leaning against the wall regarding him with hard, cold, green eyes.

He just wasn’t sure why Nick was wearing a skirt and tube top and vest.

“You look like hell, bunny-boy,” the fox commented.

It wasn’t until he saw the fox speak and heard the soprano pitch that Bailey realized it wasn’t Nick at all, though the vixen bore a disturbing resemblance. “Wh…who are you?” he finally got out past a tongue that felt slightly swollen, a sure sign that he was on the verge of dehydration, though not knowing how much or how long he’d been bleeding and what he’d gleaned from listening to his brother, Jeremy, that was a real concern.

Squinting against the light from the overhead fixtures, Bailey let his eyes roam around the austere room. It was dingy with cinderblock walls painted in an out-of-date institutional beige and there were signs of mildew from water leaks in the corners and where the walls and floor met while the ceiling bore dark stains. There were no windows at all, the only light coming from the incandescent bulb.

“Bailey,” the vixen chided with the hint of a grin, though where Nick’s was either full of warmth or humor, hers was disturbingly cold and somewhat malicious, “we’re family. I’m hurt that you don’t know me.”

“I’ve never seen you before in my life,” Bailey replied as he closed his eyes against the worry and fear that were adding to his pain. 

The vixen snorted in derision. “After all, your sister is married to my cousin.” She put her paws on her hips and glared at the rabbit. “The little fluffy bitch stole the fox that was supposed to be my mate.”

The vixen moved closer causing Bailey’s nose to twitch in an automatic fear response, that very rabbit trait making the fox chuckle throatily. When she stepped behind his chair and wrapped her arms around him it was all he could do not to give in to the building terror within. He swallowed hard when the vixen put her head close to his and spoke softly.

“I just can’t figure out what it is about you bunnies,” she said, her tone almost seductive which only added to the vixen’s intimidation factor. “Your sister has my cousin sniffing after her like a bitch-whipped kit…you have a rather fetching young fox that just happily follows you around…” She sighed before half nuzzling his cheek, a smile twisting her expression as the buck tried to pull away. “What is it that’s so alluring about you Hopps? I mean, you can’t be that good in bed, can you? Maybe I should take a turn with you, huh? See what all the insanity’s about. What do you think?”

The casual comment about what would in all honesty mean getting raped made Bailey tense up, particularly when one of the fox’s paws began to slide down his chest and trim stomach, stopping just at the edge of his jeans.

“No,” the vixen declared as she pulled away, her voice losing the patently false warm tones it’d had a moment before. “I’m all for mammal rights, but the thought of fucking something that used to be our food is just revolting.” She sauntered from around the chair the rabbit was tied to, her tail swishing left and right with every mincing step. “I don’t begrudge anyone love, Bailey. I think that it needs to be kept within species, you see. And I set my claim on Nick years ago. He’s mine and I need to remind him of that. And that, unfortunately, means he needs to learn a very painful lesson.”

The fox paused at the door and cast a look over her shoulder that was almost warm and affectionate before turning cold and frightening. 

“You seem like a nice bunny, Bailey. And I hate to say it, but you need to learn the way things are supposed to be as much as my dear, sweet cousin.” 

As she spoke two more figures appeared at the door lugging a roller chair between them. One was a fox, the other a rabbit that Bailey recognized as Aldo Stumps. Aldo wasn’t one of the denizens of Bunnyburrow that he got along with after the altercation between his father and Alvin, the other rabbit’s grandfather. But it was the figure in the chair that caused the fur along Bailey’s neck to stand out and he felt the pain and discomfort melt away under a scalding wave of rage as Riina was pushed into the room.

“Riina! Riina! Talk to me, sweetie! Please!” the buck cried as he flexed against his bonds once more. The vixen responded to his voice but could barely lift her head and glanced blearily in his direction. She was slack-mouthed and a thin strand of drool had escaped her lip as she panted slowly. “What have you done to her?!?” he raged, the edges of his vision reddening with the surge of anger that surged in him.

The vixen chuckled with a hint of her seductive tone returning while the other fox and Aldo simply smirked. “Oh, Bailey. I’m not the only one that believes that interspecies relationships are disgusting and we’re going to show the two of you that life would be so much better if you stuck to your own kind. Once we’ve gotten that out of the way I’ll do the same thing to my dear Nicholas.

“In order to do that, though, I’ve taken certain steps to make your little vixen is a bit more receptive to…ah, persuasion. I was hoping the pictures that went up on the internet would drive the two of you apart, but that wasn’t the case. I’m sorry to say that if anything it made the two of you draw even closer together. That was irritating to say the least. I must admit, that silly bunny was so hot for you that she did anything I asked of her. She was also quite helpful in testing out the nip that I came up with especially for her. In fact, it was so effective that I’ll be marketing it in the near future. Free, of course. Then once we have a good base of customers we’ll be rolling in the money. You and your little fox will be getting a bit of it yourself. 

“You see, a few of my associates and me learned that a bit of nip with extracts of certain parts of that wonderful little blue flower…what is it you call it? Midnicampum holicithias? If we mix that with a touch of ergot mammals become very susceptible to certain suggestions. And addicted quite readily.” 

The vixen pulled a small baggie and a strange device out of her pocket. It looked like a pocket nebulizer, something that Bailey’s brother, Jeremy, kept in his medical supplies at their parents’ burrow for respiratory therapy whenever one of their siblings got a cold.

“That bunny, Tara, did everything I asked her to. Pity she killed herself. She was rather useful,” the fox lamented halfheartedly, clearly not disturbed by the news that hit the rabbit like a cold dash of water to the face.

“What? Tara?” Bailey asked in shock.

The vixen shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I think she was starting to regret the things that she did to help me. She was useful though, and I think Aldo enjoyed her compliance.” She looked at the Stumps rabbit. “Didn’t you?”

“Just as sweet a doe as you please,” Aldo sneered. “A doe that learned her proper place.”

Bailey could only blink in stunned amazement that a rabbit from Bunnyburrow could so callously use another for his own selfish needs. It was then that the other fox in the room stepped behind Riina and put his paws on her shoulders and began to rub them in a manner that caused Bailey to grind his teeth together so forcefully that the others could hear it. “Get your paws off of her!” he hissed between while glaring at the mammal that was pawing at his mate.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” the vixen said as the other fox simply grinned while nuzzling the side of Riina’s head, his yellow eyes boring into the young buck. “Once the chloroform is out of her system we’re going to give her a little of this and Kelly there is going to show her why she needs to be with a fox. And you,” the vixen said as she knelt before her captive, “are going to learn why you need to be with a bunny.”

Bailey lurched forward, gnashing his teeth and trying to get at the fox though she was an inch too far away, though it didn’t stop him from trying until Aldo Stumps’ balled up paw connected with the side of his head.

“Owe you Hopps for what y’all done to my old buck,” the rabbit grumbled as he readied for another blow to Bailey’s head.

Before the second blow could connect the vixen caught his fist. “Now, now. I don’t want him damaged. I thought I was clear on that.”

Aldo whipped his head around to lay into the vixen until he saw her bare teeth and stumbled back half a step, the fox quelling his anger with fear as his nose began to twitch in anxiety.

“Go get Faye. She can begin her portion of the task while Shane takes care of his little fox friend,” the vixen ordered.

Bailey glared at both mammals until he glanced at where Riina sat tied up and swallowed hard as the fox behind her let his paws slip from her shoulders and down her torso, all the while grinning at the bound rabbit. He worked his way down to her flat belly and further with one paw while the other was moved to her back. He watched as something was done and caught Riina’s tail being moved before the other fox brought his paw back up to view and sniffed at his fingers with a wicked, malevolent grin. “You know, I’ve always loved the smell of violets. Reminds me of vixen,” he said in a husky, excited tone while his questing paw worked its way between the drugged Riina’s thighs and groped roughly at her crotch.

The room was filled with the scream of impotent rage from the trussed rabbit as he watched another mammal molesting his mate.

****************

“Block every road out of town and put deputies at the train station,” Nick was saying as he and Judy followed Constable Bullford into the Bunnyburrow courthouse and the offices the local law enforcement had there. “The quicker we can get all exits out of town covered, the better our chances of finding Riina and most likely Bailey.”  
Judy trotted to catch up and made it in a couple of bounds as she slipped her phone back in her pocket. “Bogo has ZPD mobilizing with extra mammals monitoring the jam-cams. Longpaw is getting a team together to go through the footage from around the university to see if they can spot anything with Bailey.”

Nick looked down at his wife. “They found his phone with who?”

“Kits at a playground near the college. They say they found it in the street like someone dropped it,” the bunny answered.

“More likely it was tossed, same as Riina’s,” Nick added with a frown, his normally soft eyes hardening again. “In an abduction the second thing you do is remove all possible communication.”

“What’s the first?” Constable Bullford asked with concern.

Nick frowned. “Render the target as docile and easy to control as possible, either through violence or some other means.” 

The layout of the Constable’s office and domain was fairly simple with the desks for the seven law enforcement officers for Bunnyburrow being divided into spaces with cubicle walls that barely reached past the tops of the desks. The one exception was Bullford’s office which was partitioned off with wood and glass panels. To the side of that was where most of the equipment sat, a charging station for radios and a secured room for what Nick assumed was the armory. It was fair indication that Bunnyburrow rarely saw trouble as the metal door, despite being covered with moderately fresh paint, was bubbled in some places with rust and the handle and lock looked to be several decades out of date. Nick didn’t hesitate to move to the rack of available radios and plucked one that indicated a full charge and clipped it to the waistband of jeans.

“If my cousin’s involved I want a sidearm and I recommend the rest of your mammals also load up, Constable,” Nick said with a level look.

“Is she dangerous?” the moose inquired as he moved to the aged door and fished a large key from the ring on his equipment belt.

“Highly unstable,” the fox offered as an answer. “Which means she’s extremely dangerous.” He shook his head as the Constable opened the door, rust flakes falling from the top of the frame while dragging long streamers of cobwebs from inside while setting the case he’d brought from his car on the countertop next to the radios. It only took a moment to dial in the correct combination and he slipped a pair of pistols, spare magazines and holsters from inside, passing the slightly smaller one to his wife with the necessary accessories. “Um, Constable? We have our own if that’s acceptable.”

Bullford turned to look over his shoulder, the door handle still in his hoof. “What are those?” he asked in genuine curiosity.

“Fur-Fire Model Sevens,” Nick informed the moose as he inspected the sidearm. “Seven millimeter casing necked down to contain a five millimeter fin stabilized dart. Has a twelve round magazine with an effective delivery of soporifics that are a fraction of a second behind nerve conduction. Most mammals are down and snoozing before they even feel the impact of the dart.” Nick pulled out a pair of stubby muzzle attachments. “Complete with suppressors. Standard for ZPD officers that qualify. Do you need to see our permits for personal carry?”

The moose shook his head as he considered his own single round pneumatic darter. He carried it as a side arm his entire two and half decades wearing a badge and had only needed to draw it twice in all that time. He only had four darts in a belt pouch and the pistol had to be manually charged for each shot. Granted, it was one of the few nonlethal weapons the old bull moose felt comfortable with, but might as well have been something from the pre-industrial age for as out of date as it was. Bullford found that it was just one more sign that he was ready to seriously consider retirement again.

“Just keep it out of sight or make sure that folk see your badge as well,” Bullford grunted, nodding to indicate Judy as well in that order. He shut the door and sighed heavily. “Look, Nick. I’m out of my league on this. We just don’t get this sort of thing happening in Bunnyburrow! What do you want to do first?”

The fox gave it a moment of thought, glancing at his wife before returning his attention to the Constable. “After covering all of the ways out of town? I think it might be prudent to talk to the one mammal that my cousin had contact with. Think you can clear it for us to go talk to Tara Lagotelli?”

***************

The bunny that sat in the room that had three other beds, all unoccupied, didn’t notice the mammals that huddled by the door to the room that was part of the psychiatric ward of Bunnyburrow’s All Mammals’ Hospital. Her unfocused eyes were too busy regarding the white gauze that covered her wrists as her mind floated in a sort of grey haze of sedation and drugs that were designed to remove the traces of nip and other substances from her bloodstream. The minor seepage of blood that spotted the bandages looked dark, but to the addled doe they seemed to make pictures of something familiar though she couldn’t quite place what exactly.

The doe’s ears twitched at the rather energetic conversation that was taking place at the doorway, but none of it really interested her. As she tilted her head, the bunny wondered why her arms were bound with barely enough slack for her to touch her face. Oddly enough her legs were also strapped down. As the conversation became slightly more heated but the bunny still didn’t stir. She had odd memories of a fox, of doing something terrible. The last thing she could recall with any sort of clarity was taking a pair of scissors to herself…

Tara also noticed the lines that were attached to her arms. One was a tube that hung from a bag of clear fluid while next to that was one that was a deep red. The ends disappeared under wrappings on her arm that were secured by tape. Why did she need all of that the doe wondered. As she looked at the tubes and a small patch that had wires leading from it plastered to a spot of her arm that was shaved completely clean the argument at the door grew even more energetic.

“I’m sorry,” a rabbit in white lab coat said heatedly as she glanced at her patient before turning back to the mammals that were disturbing her ward. Her black fur contrasted sharply with her hospital uniform, though dark amber eyes softened her appearance. “Miss Lagotelli is hardly in a condition to withstand an interrogation.”

“Doctor, I’m pleased as punch that you’re looking out for her, but she might have information on two mammals that are missing, one of them having been abducted right in town just a few hours ago,” Nick informed the psychiatrist. “Isn’t there any way we can talk to her?”

The doctor thought about it before shaking her head slowly. “Not by you, Mister Wilde. She’s already had an episode of extreme terror regarding one of our orderlies that happened to be a fox. If you go in there it might distress her to the point that she becomes a danger to herself or suffers an emotional breakdown that could also have life threatening effects.” She shook her head with even more determination. “No. I’m sorry. I can’t let you go in there to question her.”

“What about me?” Judy asked. “And you’ll be with me, of course. We wouldn’t ask to do this normally, but this really is a matter of life or death, Doctor.”

It was easy to tell that the ebony furred doe wanted to say no and was torn about keeping her oath to see to the welfare of her patients and the moral onus of aiding law enforcement officers where others might also be in danger. As she made her decision her ears jerked up right and leaned forward slightly. “Don’t push her too hard,” the psychiatrist ordered. “And if I think that you’re behaving in a way that puts my patient at risk I’ll have you out of that room in a heart beat and up on charges. Am I completely clear?”

Judy nodded. “Crystal.”

The doctor nodded and gestured the other bunny into the room before taking up position in a chair where she could observe her patient. While worried about Miss Lagotelli’s state, she really did hope that the young doe could provide information that could help. 

Judy approached slowly, trying not to make any sudden moves that might spook the bunny that sat with restraints to keep her from thrashing about and do more injury to herself than she already had. Grabbing an appropriately sized chair and moving it closer to the bed, Judy sat down and carefully regarded the young doe. She’d heard of the trouble that Tara had caused, the grief that she’d given both her brother and his vixen mate, and furnishing the pictures of poor Riina that wound up online. She should have been furious at the bunny and the antics she’d been part of. Instead what she saw made her sick and was accompanied by a surge of sympathy.

Tara was far too thin, so much so that bones poked out from her joints, hips, shoulders and places that the hospital gown should have hidden and failed. The bunny looked, quite simply, as if she were starved. There were also places where her fur was dangerously thin with the skin underneath looking dry and irritated. Though she tried to hide it, Judy’s nose wrinkled at the scent that came from the other doe. It wasn’t all that dissimilar to the smell from bodies that she, Nick and other ZPD officers had encountered in the line of duty. It was quite evident that nipping had taken a terrible toll on Tara Lagotelli, not the least of which had been attempted suicide.

The ailing doe was able to pull her attention away from contemplation of the gauze around her wrists and the series of tubes and wires to look up at the doe that was sitting next to the bed. “I know you…” she mumbled, her words drawling and slightly slurred. Tara narrowed her eyes for a moment in scrutiny before they went wide in shock and recognition and she rocked backwards. “You’re Bailey’s sister! You’re the one that joined the police in Zootopia!”

The young bunny was on the verge of a panic attack and Judy did the only thing she could think of and took the bunny’s paw in hers. “No, no! I’m not here to arrest you or anything, sweetie. But I really do need your help.”

Tara calmed a little even though her nose twitched in anxiety that made it past the barrier of sedatives. “M-my he..help?” she stammered, her eyes losing focus for a moment. “Why do you n-need my help?”

Judy tried to give the other doe a sympathetic look, which, considering her appearance, wasn’t too difficult. “We know that you were being used by a fox. A vixen. Her name is Tracey. She used you to cause a lot of damage. The thing is, Bailey and Riina have gone missing and we think she has them.”

At the mention of the fox that had been getting her to do things in exchange for fixes of nip Tara shrank in on herself, her ears folding back as her nose began to twitch furiously. They were all classic signs of terror among rabbits, but what alarmed Judy the most was the way that Tara began panting hard, looking as if she were having a difficult time breathing. The young bunny started trembling as she recoiled. “Sh-she’s-s-s cuh-c-crazy!” Tara hissed in terror. Her reaction showed that some of the sedatives were starting to wear off and were no longer acting as a buffer to her emotional displays.

“It’s okay sweetie” Judy said in the same soothing tone she’d use with children encountered while on duty that needed reassurance, a skill she’d learned from her husband, and took the doe’s other paw and leaned forward. “She can’t hurt you. I won’t let her.”

“Promise?” Tara asked pitifully.

“Cross my heart,” Judy told her. “We can even make sure that someone stays right outside your room so no one can get to you.”

“You?” the doe inquired hopefully. When she saw Judy hesitate Tara started to become anxious once more. “No one else likes me! They’ll l-l-l-let her get me again!”

There was something about the way the young rabbit said the last part and Judy felt a frown try to form before forcing her expression to stay friendly and comforting. “Again? Tara, did something happen?” The bunny looked away, again shrinking in on herself, in shame rather than fear this time. “You can tell me. I protect mammals and that means you too” Judy told her with the same expression of concern.

“I…I couldn’t pay for nip anymore and…you know…if you don’t get it after a while you get sick. I was…I was really needing some and she…the fox…she said I had to pay. She had a friend of hers there.” Huge tears welled up before spilling over her lower lids that were bare of the fur and lashes that should have been full and healthy. “They took pictures of me…of him doing things…” She tried to hide her face. “I did everything he wanted ‘cause I wanted nip so bad…”

One of the things that had helped Judy become the law enforcement officer she’d become was a certain amount of empathy for victims, and despite her recent behavior, Tara Lagotelli was very much a victim. “Don’t you worry” she told the young bunny. “We aren’t going to let anyone hurt you. But we need to stop all of them from hurting Bailey and Riina. Can you help us with that?”

Tara nodded before telling Judy about the vixen that had coerced her into helping her scheme and how they met near the abandoned theater on the edge of downtown Bunnyburrow so the doe could give her whatever pictures or information she’d managed to collect. When she finished Tara slumped back against the pillows on the verge of exhaustion the doctor quickly moved in, checking vitals and the general welfare of her patient while Judy relayed what she’d been told to Nick and the deputy that accompanied them.

“Let’s go check it out,” Nick said after jotting down the pertinent bits in a small notebook.

“I think it might be best if I stayed here,” Judy told her mate after a moment’s hesitation. “This kit’s terrified and I promised her protection. That and it might be best if I stayed out of this one. I don’t think I can guarantee that I’ll maintain professional detachment.”

The red fox tilted his head and regarded his wife before nodding slowly. “I think I can understand that, though I don’t know how you believe I can do the same,” he told her with a smirk that was a ghost of his normal expression.

“Because I worked to become a cop,” Judy said as she stood on her toes to reach up and give her mate an affectionate nuzzle. “I think you were born for this. Just do me a favor and bring my brother and Riina home.”

“I’ll get them back, Carrots. I promise.”

*******************

Ears straining, about the only part of him that wasn’t tied to the chair he sat in, Bailey didn’t detect any sounds from his and Riina’s captors. The fox that had been feeling her up had left the room when the drugged platinum fox didn’t react to his molestations and the rabbit had screamed himself hoarse, able to do nothing more than glare at the offending fox while breathing raggedly. Bored with the sport of baiting Bailey he’d departed leaving the rabbit and unconscious vixen alone. The fox said he’d wanted Riina aware of what he would be doing to her. 

As he took stock of the situation, Bailey was able to sort some of the events that brought him to that particular moment.

He’d been at a three day visit to Zootopia Central University and a private school to finish his education, meeting with counselors and the head of the respective gymnastics departments. Even with the walkout from school, his grades had been solid enough that the college wanted him and were more than happy to discuss scholarship options provided he did graduate high school. Bailey had mixed feelings about the trip. While on one paw he was excited about the potential of having a substantial portion of his tuition deferred through an athletic scholarship, he’d been loath to leave his Riina, particularly as the pictures that had been manufactured of her were still floating around the ether of the internet and she would sometimes go off on her own as she tried to deal with the conflicting emotions as a result.

Fortunately for both of them there were others like Lori and Sam, their parents, and Judy and Nick to help the young couple cope with the defamation attack. They’d made it clear that such an important meeting was vital for Bailey to attend and that they would be there to offer their support while the rabbit was away for a few days.

Then there was his vixen herself who made it quite clear that her rabbit would go talk to the staff at ZCU because it was his dream and his best chance of making it to the Animalympics. Riina had been quite adamant about her mate following his dreams and had chided him in the manner that females, regardless of their species, had used to win arguments by bypassing them completely throughout the ages. Using a caress, soft eyes and gentle encouragement to get her mate to do what he was reluctant to do for his own good, Riina had sent her rabbit to the city with a kiss and promise that his homecoming would be one to remember.

The homecoming certainly was one to remember Bailey mused darkly. He hadn’t thought that someone would drop tranquilizers into his soda and haul him back to Bunnyburrow. Seeing his beloved Riina brought in had helped push the lingering effects of the drug from his head, his fear and anger burning the lethargy away and allowing him to think more clearly.

A sigh from his vixen made him turn topaz eyes on Riina and he swore that he’d get her out of the situation no matter what, knowing that Judy, Nick and others had to be looking for them, but even he wasn’t sure where they were. 

If they were to escape, it was up to him.

Listening as hard as he could for any sign of their captors beyond the door, Bailey strained his ears forward and once satisfied that there wasn’t anyone near-by rocked backward as hard as he could, throwing his upper torso against the back of the wooden chair. It tilted back and hesitated for a fraction of a moment before toppling the rest of the way. As the chair came down on the concrete floor Bailey was sure the noise, which had sounded extremely loud to him, would bring his and Riina’s captors at a run, and didn’t slow as he slipped his legs down those of the chair, the ropes sliding free as well as his lower extremities. 

From there it was simply a matter of bending his body in a way that he’d spent years developing and curled in half, putting his feet on the seat of the chair before flexing with all of his strength. Wood creaked and cracked before the screws and pins that held it together gave way with a shower of splinters. Ignoring the pain of his abrasions and the bruising that he could already feel from his wrists and legs, Bailey extricated himself, shucking rope and remnants of the chair before darting to Riina and working at her bonds with a clumsiness borne of strained muscles, fright and desperation. 

“It’s okay, muru. I’ve got you. We’re going to get out of here” Bailey whispered as he fought with the bindings that held the vixen in her chair. She seemed to stir a little at the Finnish term of endearment that he’d learned from her before Riina’s head fell forward again, her chin on her chest. She was still in the throes of whatever had been used on her and unable to respond to her mate’s presence. 

Hissing quietly, almost in tears as his fox wasn’t tied as he’d been but was instead secured with heavy duct tape that fought him, Bailey paused with the sound of someone outside the door talking to someone else. Swallowing done his emotions, the voice sounding like the fox that had groped Riina while he raged against her treatment, the rabbit darted to the remains of the chair he’d been bound to and grabbed a piece that seemed the most viable as a weapon.

Leaving Riina, Bailey darted to the side of the door and lifted the improvised club as the doorknob rattled with a key before turning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, this segment was one of the most difficult to write. It was an attempt at serious crime drama, but also wondering did I go too far...not far enough...? That's really rather difficult! And then I was worried about possibly offending someone before remembering that sometimes offending people happens no matter what, so let it rip!


	15. Chapter 15

Judy was looking at nothing in particular, wondering how things were going with her husband when the doe she sat next to spoke up, pulling her from her thoughts. 

“Do…do you think Bailey and R-Riina will be okay?” Tara Lagotelli asked in a high, tremulous whisper, her eyes wide and taking on a caramel color in the subdued light of the room, particularly as the window with thick, shatter-proof safety glass faced south preventing any direct sunlight from making it into the ward.

“I hope so,” Judy answered softly. “If anyone can find them, it’s Nick.”

Tara huddled into the pillow under her head and moved to pull the thin, light green hospital blanket up to her chin only to be thwarted by the restraints. “I-I-I wi-wish I could go back and cha-change what I did…” the doe lamented as her eyes filled. “It would have been better if Grandpa hadn’t found me!”

Without any hesitation Judy reached out and took the younger bunny’s paw and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Shh. Don’t say that, Tara. You have a problem…an addiction. Nip’s taken down bigger and stronger mammals than you, that’s why it’s so dangerous. But now you can get the help you need and you can change. You can get better and be better.”

The younger doe opened her mouth to protest Judy’s reassurances but stopped halfway. She began to shake for a moment before her eyes rolled up into her head and the shaking became a full-blown seizure complete with Tara foaming at the mouth as she gurgled thickly trying to draw in air. Judy couldn’t help but recoil slightly, never seeing an addict have that particular reaction to nip detoxification. “Doctor!” she called, doing the only thing that she could think of and maintained a hold on Tara’s paw. “DOCTOR!” Judy screamed as loud as she could, her voice carrying enough so that it started a chain reaction amongst other patients on the ward, some who began to cry or howl in response.

The black furred doctor came running in, her feet sliding a little on the linoleum tiled floor, pausing only for a moment before calling orders out to an attendant before whipping back around and pointing at Judy as she approached. “Hold her down!” she ordered. “If she strains too hard against her restraints she can dislocate joints or even break bones!” The doctor, Tammy Furrings joined the other doe in holding the convulsing Tara down then leapt back as the young bunny surged forward, her eyes so dilated that there was barely any of her iris visible and she gnashed at the other two with her teeth while chittering gutturally. “Mother of luck! What the hell?!?” the doctor exclaimed as she barely missed having sharp incisors latch onto her face and throat.

Judy, her reflexes more acute than the psychiatrist’s shifted out of reach while still working on keeping Tara from doing grievous harm to herself more so than what she’d already done. Even as she pinned the young bunny she could see the bandages on her wrists darkening with fresh blood. “Hurry up and do something!” she ordered the doctor.

As soon as the attendant that answered the summons entered the room, Dr. Furrings snatched the syringe filled with a clear liquid and yanked the protective sleeve off with her teeth before plunging it into the receptacle of the saline intravenous line. Careful not to let any air in the line while working as fast as she could, Dr. Furrings depressed the plunger then watched the bunny as she slowly calmed and her thrashings subsided until Tara fell back her eyes partially closed as she panted shallowly. 

“What the hell is going on?” the ebony colored doe asked no one in particular. “This…this isn’t nip withdrawal. This is something else…”

Judy stood as the attendant and a nurse moved in, gently but firmly pushing the gray doe out of the way so that they could tend the lacerations that had reopened due to the episode, and moved towards the psychiatrist. “No. That’s not nip. Or not just nip. Run a tox screen for Night Howler.”

“Night Howler?!” Furrings exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

Judy nodded solemnly. “Pretty sure. I’ve seen the effects up close.”

Tammy nodded slowly. “I suppose you have, Officer Hopps. I’ll call down to the ER and have them send up a testing kit.”

“Hopps-Wilde.”

The doctor looked up from her phone. “Beg your pardon?”

“It’s Hopps-Wilde. I’m married, now.”

Turning back to her phone, Dr. Furrings nodded. “That’s right. You married your partner. That fox. Officer Wilde.”

With a shake of her head Judy stepped further away from the bed where Tara lay, not even aware of her surroundings. There hadn’t been any negative connotations in the psychiatrist’s tone, just an observation. Shivering slightly she rubbed at her arms to curtail the shakes that always came after a rush like she’d just suffered and hoped that Nick and the others from the Tri-Burrows discovered just what was going on and quickly.

***************

Deputy Buckmorton was of mixed feelings. On one hoof the present situation had him nervous and worried for the citizens of Bunnyburrow. The incidents of the day already disturbing and that there was more to things than just one little doe trying to commit suicide because of a nip addiction was simply alarming. On the other he was thrilled to be working with Officer Nicholas Wilde, though circumstances made him Deputy Wilde. 

There wasn’t a law enforcement officer in the Tri-Burrows that wasn’t familiar with the hometown doe or her partner and husband. They’d even taken personal time in the recent past to help bolster the local constabulary’s knowledge of modern police procedures and ensured that those like Gus knew how to employ the latest field technology. Now to be working with one of the pair of notorious officers, one that the young stag saw as something of a personal hero, was a bit unsettling. In fact, Gus Buckmorton was so intimidated that it wasn’t until the red fox called his name for the third time that the deer realized he was being addressed.

“Sorry, Sir,” Buckmorton replied, moving closer to where Nick was slowly walking the ground around the abandoned movie theater and literally examining everything.

Emerald colored eyes narrowed slightly as they regarded the Deputy. “Are you alright?” Nick asked before shaking his head. “And don’t call me ‘sir’. You know I hate that.”  
Gus had already been admonished twice already for treating the fox as a superior, which the deer believed was the case. “I guess I’m still a little messed up from this morning.”

Nick nodded. “Yeah. I can understand that. You have to remember that you got there in time to save her. Tara’s in good paws. Now what we have to do is find something that tells us where my dear cousin is. I think I’m going to take a great deal of delight in hauling her in front of Constable Bullford.”

The stag glanced at the other officer turned deputy. “Is she really that bad?”

Nick nodded lowly his eyes scanning the ground. “She’s bad, alright. Crazy as a shithouse cockroach, Gus, if you’ll pardon my use of local vernacular.”

“Not a problem, Nick,” the deer said with a grin, finally addressing the fox in a familiar fashion, though it still felt odd. He watched as Nick knelt down and started to examine the ground more closely. “Um…what are you doing?”

“Don’t laugh,” the fox said with a serious expression before his nose started twitching again. “A cop needs to use every sense at times and…” Nick paused before leaning closer to the ground. “It’s not recent, but there’s been a fox around here. And…” he sniffed at the ground again, “if I remember correctly, that’s the scent masker that my cousin prefers.” He took a couple of more sniffs before standing with a livid expression. “Goddamn it! I know she’s close but all I can smell is her, the blocker she uses and…candy?” Nick turned and scrutinized everything around the theater building. “Or something sugary.”

Gus watched before looking at the ground where Nick had detected the scent of another fox and frowned. “She’s not here, but I think I might know where she’s at,” the Deputy said in a curious tone as he stepped over and knelt, his hoof touching part of the ground close to where the fox was. When he brought it up and looked at what was on the ends of his fingers he held them up. “We don’t have mud like this around the immediate Bunnyburrow area. This is from out near the old quarry. Limestone. If this is from the last rain we had, and you smell candy. The only thing that comes to mind is the old Stillfoot Candy Works out on county road seventeen.” The deer shook his head. “It’s been closed up for years, though.”

Nick’s ears jerked erect so quickly it was a wonder they didn’t make a popping noise. “C’mon!” Nick said as he sped to the cruiser that he and Buckmorton were using. “I want to go check out that factory. If there’s still some of the old equipment and it’s anything like I’ve seen on those cooking shows, they could use those to start a drug lab.”

****************

The door latch wasn’t even fully disengaged when the mammal on the other side began to spout taunting innuendo. “Hey bunny-boy. You ready to watch me show your little vix a good time? I can’t wait to see what you think when I knot your little bitch. I’m gonna tie her for a good half hour and fill her with some grade-A fox batter!” The door swung all the way open and the fox that had been identified as Shane walked in before stopping abruptly at the wreckage of the chair that had held Bailey. “What the fu-“

As soon as the fox spun to go inform the other captors that the rabbit was loose he barely had enough time to look shocked before the wooden chair leg caught him on the side of the head and he dropped like a puppet that had all its strings cut at once. 

“Nobody touches my mate, asshole,” the rabbit grunted before spitting on the supine form of the fox. Not wanting to take a chance on the others discovering that he was loose, Bailey shut the door most of the way, making sure that he had Shane’s keys before the latch engaged. There was little doubt that the fox was out of it for the moment, nor did the buck feel too bad about the three teeth on the floor. For a moment there was the urge to wail on the fox with his cudgel, though it passed quickly. Instead Bailey fetched the ropes that he’d been secured with and bound his tormentor, both arms and legs bent backwards before securing him to an old style radiator heating unit. No sooner had he finished than his name being called snapped his attention to Riina.

“Ba…Bailey?” the platinum fox inquired softly, the vixen lifting her head with what looked like great effort. As soon as he was finished securing the would-be rapist, Bailey darted to his mate, Riina looking at him with watery eyes that seemed a bit unfocused as he went to work on her bonds. “What’s happening? Where are we?” She rolled her paw around as it was freed while her mate went to work on the second. “You were in the city…” She looked at the rabbit as the world cleared a bit more. “You…your wrists! And your head! Bailey! What’s happening?!” she whispered sharply as her fingers gingerly touched the cut on her mate’s head.

“I don’t know,” Bailey admitted. “I was drugged. I think I hit it on something. Or was hit. They grabbed you as well. They said it was chloroform.” He knelt to release her legs from the roller chair’s splayed base that had her thighs spread at an obscene angle. “Look, we need to get out of here. All of the stuff that was happening was done by a vixen named Tracey.”

“A…a vixen? Why would she do this?” the platinum fox asked.

Again the rabbit shook his head. “She says she’s Nick’s cousin and supposed to be his mate. She started the stuff with us to drive us apart and then wanted to get Judy and Nick to split up. She’s a specie-ist. She’s also absolutely nuts. And dangerous.” The last of the tape came free and he stood a little slowly, wavering slightly as he was still not quite clear of the drugs that he’d been given. “We need to go, now. It won’t be long before they come back.”

Riina let her mate help her up and took a moment to embrace him, nuzzling against the side of his face for a moment before nodding. “I’m ready.”

Bailey jerked his head in agreement. “Just be ready to run if they see us. When we get out of here the most important thing will be to get as far away as quick as possible and try to find help.”

“But where are we?” Riina asked as she gripped the rabbit’s paw tightly.

“I have no clue, muru. That’s why we need to run and run fast.”

Riina accepted what he said. “Then it’s a good thing I started exercising with you,” she told him resolutely.

“It sounds like everyone was outside and to the left, so we’ll go right when we get out, okay?” He shot the fox a half smile as she agreed to his plan. “Riina…I love you. I’m not going to let them hurt you.”

“I love you,” the fox told him softly in reply. “I’m not going to let them hurt you either.” To drive her point home she let her teeth show in a toothy grin even as they supported each other before turning towards the door.

*****************

“Mother of luck!” Dr. Furrings muttered darkly as she looked at the results of the drug test that had been done to Tara and shook her head. “Nip was bad enough. But there’s also traces of Night Howler and ergot! What the hell was she thinking mixing these?!”

Judy looked from the psychiatrist to the unconscious bunny on the far side of the room, her breathing a bit more normal and fresh bandages on her wrists. The staff had added more restraints after the combination of going savage and suffering nip detoxification. “I don’t think she knew that the nip she was using was laced.”

“This complicates things, and that’s about the understatement of the century!” Furrings looked at the paper again as she tapped a pen against her lower lip. “We’re going to have to move her to intensive care while we fight this. There’s a very strong chance that she’ll have another episode and, I hate to say it, with her current condition, there’s a very real possibility of her going into cardiac arrest while we leech all of the different chemicals from her body.” She tapped in the order for the transfer of the bunny to the ICU on the electronic tablet that the hospital had finally replaced their standard clipboards and charts with. “You know, I took an oath to save lives, to do no harm, but in this case I think I’m wishing a great deal of harm to the mammal that did this. Nip’s bad enough. This? This is wretched and evil.”

“Yeah,” Judy said in agreement. “It is.”

Tammy shook her head. “I appreciate what you’ve done so far, Officer Ho…Hopps-Wilde. You helped us save her. I can’t allow you to stay in her ICU room, though.”

“I’m not leaving,” Judy said firmly. “I know there are waiting rooms there. I promised I’d keep her safe and I don’t break my promises. She needs all of the support she can get. We’ll get her through this. You’ll see.”

The doctor looked at Judy and smiled, some of the concern and tightness leaving her eyes. “You know, I think I understand why you became a police officer. You’re a rather unique individual. Are there any bucks like you at home?”

Judy snorted in amusement, some of the tension of the day diminishing with the banter that was actually friendly and warm. “There are a few. Then again they are my brothers so I’m fairly sure they could certainly use your professional advice and services.”

The doe smiled at that before motioning Judy to follow her as orderlies cam to wheel Tara to the ICU. “Who doesn’t need a good brain scrubbing every once in a while? C’mon. I’ll get you in good with the nurses’ station down there this way you can get decent tea or coffee or snacks if you plan on sitting out the duration.”  
“Thank you, Doctor,” Judy said with something more along the lines of a friendly tone.

“Call me Tammy. I worked hard to pass medical school before turning to psychiatry and it took a while, but sometimes being called ‘doctor’ makes me feel older than I want to. Like today.”

“Doctor!” one of the orderlies called, a nurse already working on taking Tara Lagotelli’s vitals. “We have a problem here!”

Swearing darkly Tammy stuck her tablet in one of the oversized pockets on her lab coat and moved forward, not needing to be told what the problem was, the blood that spotting the young doe’s hospital gown. “Damn it! Lewis, call peeds and tell them we have a code blue! We’ll meet them in ICU!”

“Pressure is dropping” the nurse said tersely, the skunk kicking the brakes off the wheels of the hospital bed while yanking the monitor wires from the bedside unit and draping them over the IV rack incorporated into the head rail.

Judy felt a wave of unease ripple through her gut. “What’s going on?” she asked in concern.

“Tara’s pregnant and the drugs are causing her to abort!” the black furred doe said as she gestured Judy to the end of the bed to help push. “If we don’t move quick she’s going to lose them!” They got through the door and barreled towards the elevator, the security guard on duty already having the doors open without the doctor having to use her identity tag. “I didn’t know she was pregnant!”

“I don’t think she knew either,” Judy commented as they got in while the Tammy punched the button for the floor they needed to get to. As the car lurched downwards she wondered if things could get any worse for the young bunny between whispering prayers to any higher power that might be listening.

****************

Only half of the lights were functioning in the hallway, though Bailey paused momentarily to stick the key in the door handle that he’d liberated from the unconscious fox, ensuring it was locked before breaking it off. “That won’t keep anyone out for long, but it might give us a little more time,” the rabbit whispered. He reached back and took his mate’s paw to guide and steady her, even though her eyes were better suited to the subdued lighting, and adjusted his grip on the chair leg.

The pair padded silently down the hall, old tiles peeling up and leaving concrete and ancient adhesive exposed. There were sky lights but the panes were coated with years of dirt, grime and bird droppings further giving the structure they were in a sinister, dark atmosphere. Adding to the desperate feel of the situation was the pervading reek of mildew and stagnant water while under that was the cloying hint of sugar and what smelled like mint.

Old burned out exit signs guided the pair and just when they thought that they’d reached a way out, they also stumbled into a large area that looked like it had once been an inside loading dock. In the middle of the room were cellophane wrapped bricks of what could only be nip. Next to those were piles of small, innocuous looking blue flowers that three mammals were rendering into pieces, the stamen and pistils going into one pile while the leaves and stems went into another. The trio had on thick chemical gloves and muzzle masks with industrial grade filters. Further back large copper kettles sat on propane burners where the flowers were divided up even further and dropped in, another rabbit stirring the mixture.

“Son of a…” Bailey whispered in horror. “They’re lacing the nip with midnicampum holicithias!” 

“What?” Riina whispered, her ears flicking back in confusion. 

“Night Howler! They’re adding Night Howler to the nip!”

The vixen squeezed her rabbit’s paw as she gasped silently. “The same drug that Judy and Nick fought against? That’s horrible!”

“Yeah,” Bailey agreed with nod. “It is. If they were giving that to Tara it’s no wonder she went crazy.” He indicated Riina to move back but not before he recognized all but one of the five figures in the room. 

Two of the five mammals in the lab were Stumps rabbits, Aldo and his brother Amos. Their sister Faye was off to the side unwrapping the bricks of nip, every so often pausing to nibble on a pinch of the potent plant. Towards the back of the converted loading dock the raccoon that had been at the Zootopia Central University that Bailey recalled seeing monitored light blue fluids that were being sprayed onto trays of loose nip flakes before drying under heat lamps that shone red. As one tray was added to the row of drying nip, the raccoon sifted some kind of powder on the trays. The fifth was an African dog that Bailey had never seen before.

“C’mon. Let’s get out of here,” Bailey whispered.

As they turned around it was to find Tracey Wild standing with her paws on her hips. “See what you wanted?” she inquired coldly.

The rabbit barely had a chance to tighten his grip on his improvised weapon when Riina leapt forward with a snarl of undiluted hatred and vitriol, her teeth bared and her paws splayed so that her claws protruded from her fingertips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. Just gotta pile stuff on to Tara, don't I?


	16. Chapter 16

Bailey’s mouth fell open as his mate launched herself at the red fox with a barely audible growl of rage, her blue eyes taking on an eerie sort of illumination while her hackles rose in a way that he’d never seen before. He flinched as the pair of vulpines met and rolled around, gnashing, clawing and tearing into each other with such a fury that fur literally flew. Then the snarling grew louder, occasional yips of pain coming from one or the other as a blow landed or a bite struck a particularly sensitive spot. Regardless, it was an aspect of his mate that the rabbit didn’t know his vixen possessed.

Like so many other mammals, Bailey had seen images of the predators that had gone savage during the Bellwether plot that bystanders had recorded on phones and such, but it was detached, impersonal. Not so with this. The sheer ferocity that the vixens turned on each other was staggering. Both were out for blood and there was no chance at anything less than an all out attack.

Then there was the terrifying transformation of Riina, the petite fox normally so quiet and shy, so demure…yet here she now was, rolling around on the floor with another fox and quite intent on causing as much physical harm as possible. Maybe even striving on killing the other vixen.

Rabbits could get into some fairly nasty tussles, but this was unlike anything he’d ever seen, including some of the hormone fueled scraps in school that were intense but blessedly short.

Where Riina had youth and drive, motivated to protect her mate, Tracey was older with more mass to her and with a yowling that caused the rabbit’s fur to stand on end and his blood to chill while his testicles tightened against his groin, all but threw the platinum fox the width of the hallway using arms and legs. Riina hit the wall with a grunt before sliding to the floor, the impact clearly knocking the wind out of her and compounding the issues that the lingering doping was causing.

Seeing his love down for the moment, some of her fur tinged dark pink with blood, caused something in the rabbit to come loose. With a scream and baring of his teeth, Bailey used all of his not inconsiderable mass, muscles honed from years of gymnastics, of pushing his strength and endurance to levels outside the rabbit norm, to launch himself at the red fox. The reaction was instantaneous, instinctual, but a small part of his mind remained focused, alert and coldly calculating.

Bailey impacted with the fox and rolled, twisting his body to face the fox as he crouched low. The hit had caught Tracey completely unaware and like Riina, had knocked the breath from her lungs. Without waiting or giving the vixen a chance to recover, the rabbit launched himself again, leaping forward before dropping to the floor, the broken tiles of the floor causing cuts and ripping out plugs of fur from various parts of Bailey’s anatomy as he curled his legs until a fraction of a second before impact. Then with an explosive scream of fury he kicked out and up, his feet landing in the russet furred vixen’s midsection. She folded around the blow before flying through the air, the rabbit’s two-legged kick sending her on a shallow arc into the loading dock area where Tracey impacted with tables and equipment spilling nip, plastic wrapped bricks and other paraphernalia ricocheting in several directions.

The other mammals that had been processing the drugs had all looked up at the scream of rabbit fury, though the interruption had caught them completely unaware and had the added bonus of stunning all five into several moments of inactivity. As Tracey sent materials and equipment flying with her unceremonious landing, the others began to move.  
All of it was for naught, though, as cellophane wrapped bundles encountered the flames for the propane fueled pots of Night Howler extract while one burner was tipped over and reacted with chemicals that had spilled in a spray. With a ‘WHOOOMF!’ that was felt as well as heard, it seemed that the entire lab became a raging conflagration. Screams and shouts from the fox, raccoon and Stumps rabbits only added to the confusion. 

Bailey watched none of the result of his attack. His concern at the moment was getting Riina up and moving. “C’mon! We gotta get out of here!” he bellowed at the dazed vixen. As he physically hauled his lover to her feet he saw that her head had hit the wall with enough force to split the skin just above her neck, blood welling in the gash and matting her fur. The hit against the wall had stunned her to the point she could barely get her legs under her. Without even pausing, Bailey slipped his arm under hers and around her body, half carrying his mate back down the hallway.

In the loading dock the fire consumed what it could, filling the room with the stink of nip, Night Howler and ergot, the thick smoke and fumes affecting the mammals that had processing the drugs. Tracey Wilde had the foresight to stay close to the floor as she scampered on all fours after the bastard Hopps rabbit and his doxy of a fox. The operation hadn’t cost as much to set up as she’d been able to repurpose some of the old equipment in the abandoned candy factory, but it had taken more than just the assets she’d had and the investment of other mammals were now going up in literal smoke.

For that there had to be a reckoning for the loss of a fortune in nip and the refined ergot based hallu, not to mention the ruined plans of using the two kits to get at Nick.  
Behind Tracey the others were fleeing the danger, the raccoon, Toby, staggering to the exit door now that he’d extinguished his smoldering tail. It mattered little to the vixen. The Stumps had agreed to grow the nip between the rows of their farm’s crops and cultivate the Night Howlers, Shane and Toby were simple mammals that wanted money with little actual work, and all were very much expendable. What was not expendable was the product. It was what was going to pay back the investors that had financially backed Tracey. Now without the nip, they would be screaming for her hide as failure was never an option with the mammals she’d been dealing with.

Clutching her stomach from where the rabbit had kicked her, feeling that something wasn’t quite right as her breath hitched, Tracey turned her back on her underlings and padded unsteadily to the hall and after Bailey and Riina, insanity in her jade green eyes and murder in her withered heart.

****************

“She’s stable and we’ve been able to treat the distress of her kits,” the pediatrics specialist told Tammy and Judy as they stood outside the ICU cubicle Tara had been brought to. “What concerns me,” the skunk said as he adjusted the rectangular lens glasses on his narrow snout and ran a paw through the thatch of longer head fur, “is the possible complications to her children. There are some exotic substances in play, and even though we’ve stopped the rejection process, she might still lose them.”

The two bunnies looked at the other doctor, Judy with concern and worry, Tammy while trying to maintain an air of professional detachment. That was the problem sometimes; maintaining that barrier of caring, and caring too much.

“Does she even know that she’s pregnant?” the skunk inquired with a scowl.

Furrings shook her head slowly. “No. Then again, we didn’t know until her body began to abort.” She rubbed tiredly at her face before sighing. “What are the chances of having syndrome kits?”

Judy jerked in surprise, not even having thought of that possibility. Kits, cubs, pups, lambs and calves that had mothers that nipped while pregnant rarely developed along normal, healthy lines. They were often born with either severe mental handicaps or physical abnormalities. For one that was in a relationship that precluded having her own bunny kits, it hit Judy like a blow to the gut.

The pediatrician shook his head with a half-hearted shrug. “At this point? Flip a coin. Maybe the continuing development, as long as she doesn’t smoke any more nip, may continue normally. Maybe the damage is already done. I can’t run any tests to determine the answer with the delicate state she’s in. Most mammals think rabbits are fragile, but at the same time all of you are frighteningly resilient.” He let his paw fall after straightening his head fur. “All we can do is keep her safe and on the road to recovery while hoping for the best.” The skunk looked up at a figure that entered the ward an hour earlier. “I don’t know if we should tell him, though. He’s been through enough today and I don’t have any solid answers yet. I will be staying past my shift to keep an eye on things. If you need me I’ll be in the nap room.”

Tammy thanked the other physician before glancing at Ennio Lagotelli. “I wish I had some better news for him,” the ebony doe muttered as she plunged her paws into the pockets of her lab coat.

“Don’t think like that,” Judy told the other bunny. “Where there’s life, there’s hope. And until I hear from my husband, I’m here for you and him if either of you need,” she said with gesture of her head towards the aged buck.

“And don’t think I won’t take you up on that,” Tammy said with the twitch at the corners of her mouth that hinted at a possible smile. “Want to help me comfort her grand father?”  
Judy nodded and gave the other bunny a wink. “Sure. That’s part of being a cop, too. It’s not all glamour and taking down criminals, after all.”

***************

Gus Buckmorton took one hoof off the steering wheel of his cruiser and pointed up the road. “That’s it. Mabel Stillfoot’s Confections and Candy Works,” he informed the fox in the passenger seat. “It’s been shut down for about thirty or forty years, now. They left a lot of their stuff. Old doe that ran it just shut the doors and walked away one day. Left a lot of the equipment and stuff. Made sure that her employees were paid up through the end of the month and just locked the doors. 

“Folk said that she was out of sorts when her husband ran off with a younger doe, that she just went bananas, others said that she got tired of it and quit. Whatever the reason it’s just been sitting up here unused. Some of the more adventurous teens come up here every so often, use some of the outbuildings as clubhouses and such, but we’ve never really had any issues. Not even vandalism or graffiti.”

Nick wanted to sigh with exasperation at the history lesson, something that Buckmorton had done the entire drive up to the old factory in the hills outside of Bunnyburrow. It seemed the deer knew just about everything there was about his hometown. If anything, Buckmorton was as familiar with the lore and tidbits of Bunnyburrow as Nick was with Zootopia. Sure, the fox knew how to get around the city and once had connections with nearly every single grafter, hustler and con artist, but Gus knew his home’s history.

“If anyone came up here they’d either have to love hiking or have a vehicle,” the fox said, noting that the dirt of the turn off on was white in color and that there were tire tracks in the dust and embedded in the dried mud indicating fairly recent use. “Maybe we should…take…a…look…” He trailed off as his eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses.

Coming down the track from the abandoned factory were two figures. The one on the left had long ears and a light buff color, definitely a rabbit. The other was almost the same height as the rabbit, sans ears, and had almost luminous white fur and light silvery highlights. It was obvious that they were trying to run away as fast as possible from the factory. It was also just as obvious that one, or both, were injured as their progress wasn’t all that fast. 

Nick’s heart was already beating fast at finding Bailey and Riina. It began to trip hammer when a car, older, blocky looking and not in the best shape appeared behind them, the tires kicking up a cloud of dust as it rocketed towards the rabbit and vixen. “Trip the siren!” the fox ordered as he rolled down that window and leaned out, waving his arm frantically.

“LOOKOUT! GET OFF THE ROAD!” Nick shouted frantically, repeating the warning several times.

Bailey had already heard the warning, and the growl from the car coming up behind him and Riina, pulling his mate to the side just before Tracey ran them down, the rabbit keeping his vixen from getting injured any worse by helping her roll and stop. Even as the tires of the car snarled on the dirt track, sliding drunkenly as the red fox vixen stomped on the brakes as the couple vanished into the undergrowth between the trees.

Nick watched as the young couple slipped into the woods, vanishing from his vantage point. He then watched as his cousin scrambled out of the car and gave chase, something small and black in her paw as she dove into the woods. “Call it in and get us some back up!” the fox ordered the deputy, leaping out of the cruiser before it had come to a complete stop. Filling his paw with the grip of his sidearm, Nick took a moment to scan the immediate wood line after yanking his sunglasses off. He saw nothing, but as he’d told Gus Buckmorton, sight wasn’t the only tool a cop had. His ears picked up the sounds of someone moving through the brush while his nose picked up two distinct vixen scents and one rabbit.

Not even waiting for the deputy, Nick slipped into the undergrowth, his weapon at the ready, though he didn’t pause as he went after his mentally unstable cousin before she could do something that they would all regret.

****************

The air outside the abandoned factory helped to clear both Bailey’s and Riina’s heads, the vixen regaining a bit of her strength and stamina after being slammed into the wall. They’d both seen the county cruiser approaching, Nick waving at them before dodging into the woods. As they moved deeper into the thick green growth they heard Tracey get out of the car and resume the chase. Bailey’s thought was to take a long loop around and cut back towards the road and the deputy’s vehicle. 

Scrambling over a fallen tree and small cairn of rocks that had been pulled out of the ground when it fell, Bailey used the paw that was still twined with his vixen’s to help her over, letting Riina down the other side. Just as he prepared to follow there was a curious popping noise behind him followed an instant later by a sharp, hot lance of pain in his side. Cursing the hornet that had to have zapped him, Bailey tried to get off the log when the popping noise came again and he glanced in the direction it came from to see the red fox vixen stumbling after, something in her paw that she pointed at him. Guns were so rare in Bunnyburrow, Bailey never having seen one apart from books and occasional movies that the danger really didn’t register until Tracey fired at him again, the slug smacking into the tree he stood on.

Leaping down and running, the rabbit finally understood the danger and that Tracey Wilde was even more dangerous than he’d previously thought. “Crazy bitch!” he hissed while tugging on Riina’s paw. “She’s got a gun!”

Riina simply nodded and followed her rabbit mate as they followed a light downhill grade, both of them slipping and sliding in some of the loam and debris that had accumulated for untold years. Unfortunately they were leaving tracks that were quite easy to follow, but the desire to rapidly put as much distance between them and the insane vixen taking priority over all other considerations. It was clear that the red fox had made the tree they’d clambered over when two more ‘Pop!’ sounds followed them, one bullet whizzing between the rabbit and platinum vixen, the other splashing into the dirt and dead leaves of the forest floor before Tracey swore heatedly as she expended the last of her ammunition.

With a snarl of purest hatred Tracey threw the gun before leaping after the fleeing pair.

Bailey felt his strength leaving him far too quickly and as he stumbled Riina discovered why, crying out with horror at the large spot of blood low on her rabbit’s side. “You’re hurt!”  
Pulling away his paw and regarding the thick crimson smear on his palm and finger pads. “Riina…run!”

“I’m not leaving you!” the vixen hissed, tugging on the rabbit’s paw with desperate insistence. “You can make it! Please, Bailey! Get up!”

Just as Bailey lifted his head, his smoky topaz eyes widened as Tracey Wilde leapt at both of them, her arms out and claws extended with teeth bared for the kill. Apart from the instinctual stab of fear, the one emotion that the rabbit felt was regret. Regret that he had failed and let Riina down and was unable to protect her.

As for the platinum fox, the expression of open mouthed shock and the set of his ears told her all she needed to know. Adrenaline already surging in her system from realizing her mate and love had been injured sent her into a primal mode of territoriality, of protecting what was hers, of defending her mate.

The two vixens met once more in a fury of snarling and growling, claws slashing as teeth glinted and flashed in the gloom of the deep woods. Bailey tried to get to his feet to help his mate, his own rage overriding pain and blood loss, though the wound was far too grievous and he fell forward, his life trickling out in a steady drip, his vision already darkening on the edges as he fought to catch his breath.

Once more Tracey’s advantage of greater weight and size was countered by Riina’s youth and better physical condition, the platinum fox’s speed enabling her to rend clothing and flesh alike with ease. Though the younger fox kept her claws blunted for her mate they were still effective natural weapons and served her well in grappling. With a tight hold on the red fox, Riina balled up her right paw and sent it flying forward in a blur, the impact of the blow rocking Tracey’s head back.

“Leave…” the smaller vixen snarled, “my…” her paw once more slamming into the other’s snout, “mate…” blood exploded from the russet female’s nose and maw, “ALONE!”

It was a beating the likes of which Tracey Wilde had never experienced, normally using guile to avoid actual confrontations. The taste of her own blood on her tongue only managed to fuel her insanity, though, and with a howl of purest hatred and rage the red fox sprang at the other vixen in an all-or-nothing attack. She impacted high enough that Riina was bowled over, the pair latching onto the other while trying to bite and tear, going for throat and face, desperately exploiting any opening. 

As they began to tumble down the incline the fracas engulfed Bailey, tangling the rabbit up with the titanic battle that his mate was involved with.

He did what he could, using his last dregs of strength and his greater flexibility, Bailey was able to interpose his own body between the maddened vixen as his beloved and as the tumble continued, Riina being left behind, the rabbit and fox continuing the fight.

Bailey was at the end of his reserves, however, and it was only moments before the red fox was able to get the advantage and pinned the lapine, cold, jade colored eyes lit by madness as she met his amber ones. He couldn’t help the involuntary swallow as her paw gripped his throat, the claws pricking the skin beneath. Unlike Riina, Tracey Wilde made sure that hers were as sharp as possible.

“Tracey! NO!” Nick bellowed as he slid to a stop in the leaf debris and moss, letting his inertia stop with him in a shooting stance, both paws stabilizing his pistol. “Let him go, Tracey!”

Instead of doing what she was ordered the vixen jumped to her feet, physically hauling the rabbit up with her, paw still at his throat as she used his body as a shield. “Put your gun down!” she ordered, making a show of lifting her elbow so that the rabbit’s head was tilted back, letting the other two foxes see that her claws were at Bailey’s carotid artery. “Do it or his blood gets sprayed all over the woods, Nick!”

Nick snarled softly, the grinding of his teeth in frustration even louder as he raised both paws, not putting his sidearm down, but not pointing it as his cousin, either. “There’s no where to run to, Tracey. Let him go. For once do the easy and right thing.” He met her gaze and let his resolve settle in his emerald eyes. “It’s over.”

“IT’S NOT OVER!” the russet vixen screamed, Bailey trying not to flinch at her voice right in his ear. “Drop the gun!”

“I can’t do that, Tracey. You know that,” Nick told her matter-of-factly. “Let him go.”

“No! You…you were supposed to be my mate! You promised me! You PROMISED!”

Riina sat on her knees looking from one fox to the other before her eyes settled on Bailey’s. So much of her world hinged on this point and without realizing it started to lift her paw towards the love of her life.

“Be still!” the red furred vixen ordered, her grip tightening on the rabbit’s throat. As soon as the platinum fox lowered her arm Tracey returned her attention to the other red fox. “You promised me…” she whined, the madness in her eyes not diminishing in the slightest, and the tears that slipped down the fur of her snout only adding to the conclusion that the vixen was insane. “You promised me!”

“We were four years old, Tracey,” Nick told her with forced patience. “You can’t hold a four year old to that kind of promise.”

“YES I CAN!”

“Tracey…I have a wife…a mate and-“

“She’s a fucking bunny, Nick! She can’t be what I can be for you! She can’t give you kits!” The paw that held Bailey’s arm shook the rabbit. “A fucking bunny! Why? What can she do that I can’t?!”

Nick sighed. “She completes me. She understands me. She makes me want to be better.” He sighed and shook his head. “And you are involved in the thing that I have always hated. Drugs, Tracey? Nip? Really? You know I hate drugs. You know what I went through. You push that poison…you make it even worse, and you expect me to love you for it? You really are bug-shit crazy.”

“I’m not CRAZY!”

“Then prove it,” Nick told the other fox. “Let him go and give yourself up. Let’s end this so no one gets hurt.”

For a moment it looked as if the vixen might listen until the tears began to flow more freely and the paw that held the rabbit’s throat twitched slightly, a small sound escaping Bailey’s muzzle. The other two vulpines watched as the russet vixen’s lips pulled back from her teeth, the sound of sirens in the distance making it to the ears of all four mammals. “No. I want you…both of you…to hurt like I hurt! See how you like it when you lose what you care about!”

Nick felt his blood grow cold as his cousin opened her maw to savage the rabbit’s throat and neck with her teeth, Riina sobbing as the horror of what the other planned striking her in the heart like a shard of ice. From the corner of his eye all Bailey could see was the open maw of the vixen that held him, long white teeth, and in her jade green eyes…death.  
It was one of those moments, not unlike some of his gymnastics meets and routines, where things became so very clear. Bailey knew in his heart and gut that this was it, the moment where there was no going back, that he was committed for better or worse.

He also knew that if he was going to die that it was going to be on his terms and no other mammal’s. His topaz colored eyes flicked to Riina, the little fox that had come to mean so much, had become the center of his universe, and tried to let everything he felt, the love that was inside pass between them in that glance. He watched as her own blue eyes widened in understanding for a split second. Once he got that little sign of recognition for what lay inside him, in his heart and soul, he took as much of a breath as the mad vixen that held him would allow before flexing his legs with the last erg of strength he had.

One moment fox and rabbit stood facing the other two. The next they were sailing backwards.

“BAILEY!”

Shaking her head even as she crawled forward, Riina found the edge of the precipice that the two had gone over. The trees and undergrowth had hidden the ledge, the woods giving way suddenly to bare rock and a sheer drop. At the bottom of the gorge were the raging waters of the river that fed Bunnyburrow below. Though where further down the river was slow and serene, this far upstream it was a torrent of rapids that splashed with tremendous force against sharp rocks and underwater obstacles. Her paw outstretched, Riina willed her mate to come back even as she screamed his name again as she watched as Bailey was taken downstream several dozen yards before slipping beneath the turbulent surface.

“Oh…hell…!” Nick cried as he leapt forward in a run and went sailing over the ledge that Bailey and his cousin had just gone over.

***************

Riina was found by Buckmorton and others, the traumatized vixen finally able to tell the deputy and others what had happened, telling them of the others going over the cliff and into the river below. More than familiar with having to run the occasional river rescue, the rescue squad and a few other deputies along with Engines One and Three of the Bunnyburrow Fire Department sprang into action. The platinum fox was led away to a waiting cruiser where someone put a blanket over her and began to tend to her bruises, cuts and scratches, though she was all but oblivious to their ministrations, her heart lying in her chest like a shattered crystal vase, the shards of which cut her apart from the inside.

He was gone. Bailey was gone and there would be no recovery from that. Her mate, in the truest sense of the word, had been taken from her and Riina wished with the last bit of herself that she had left that she could join him. Perhaps in the next life they could have what had been taken from them in this one…

Once assured that they had her as stable as possible, Gus Buckmorton instructing the ambulance team that tended to the young fox that she’d just lost her mate and that extra care needed to be exercised with her resulting condition, Riina was taken to Bunnyburrow’s All Mammals Hospital.

As she lay in the bed in a curtained off trauma section, an ocelot nurse keeping close watch on her at all times, the vixen simply rolled to her side and stared at nothing as her paw clenched at the pain in her chest that was more than physical. It was in that same position that she lay in when her parents arrived, fussing over her, soon joined by a very subdued Stu and Bonnie Hopps and finally, Judy. 

It wasn’t until Judy arrived that she gave in to the anguish in her and reached out for the bunny who had the same vacant look in her amethyst eyes, each knowing the other had lost their mate…their one love. Holding out her trembling arms imploringly, Riina silently begged Judy to join her in mourning, not giving in to the sobs of deepest hurt until they were holding each other. 

It wasn’t the one she wanted to hold her, but there was a small bit of comfort of shared grief. 

Judy and Riina sat like that for an untold amount of time until the doors to the ER bay burst open, mammals calling out in urgent voices, conveying information on vitals, condition and injuries. When Riina and Judy heard them call out the species, both jerked upright, looking at each other in disbelief.

“Rabbit, male. Young adult. GSW, multiple fractures, contusions and lacerations with borderline hypothermia! Stabilize and ready an OR, stat!” someone called out.

A little further down, “Fox, male. Early thirties. Contusions and minor lacerations, also borderline hypothermia and-“

“Get off of me!” Nick’s surly voice ordered the doctors and medics. “Him first. Now, there was a young vixen brought in. Where is-“

“NICK?!?” both Judy and Riina called at the same time.

Before either could do more than sit up, their paws holding the other one’s in relief and anxiousness, the fox in question pushed past medical mammals and flung the curtain back that concealed the vixen and bunny.

The two females blinked at what they saw. Nick was still sopping wet, though there was a thermal blanket around his shoulders. What clothing they could see still dripped water and was torn in multiple places. His left eye was starting to swell shut and through the soaked fur the two could see places of skin where bruises were already starting to appear and his left arm was in a sling. They also noticed that he was limping badly though it did little to stop him. The Hopps and Kettu parents parted as Nick went straight to his wife and embraced her, Judy not caring in the slightest about getting wet and held each other for several moments. Then Nick let go of his mate with his good arm and took Riina’s paw, giving it a squeeze as he smiled lopsidedly at the vixen.

“Don’t worry, cupcake. Bailey’s alive. They’re going to fix him up,” the red fox said, noticing the relief that caused Riina to sag in relief, more tears coursing down her cheeks, though these were ones of relief. “You got yourself quite the hero rabbit, Riina.”

“I…I know…” the young vixen husked as she collapsed onto the pillow of her bed. “I plan on showing him that he’s very special for the rest of our lives…” Riina mumbled just before her eyes rolled up and she fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all know I can't help but use cliffhangers...or cliff jumps in this case!


	17. Chapter 17

The staff of All Mammals Hospital refused to let Riina walk on her own and insisted she use a wheelchair. The vixen balked at first until she tried to stand and felt the strength leave her body with recent events and grudgingly agreed. Fortunately there were no shortage of helping paws to assist her, both her parents, Ilona and Tapio, who insisted on touching her every chance they got to reaffirm to themselves their daughter was safe, Bonnie and Stu…all of them gave the vixen and the other mammals around them support.  
Particularly as they sat together in the waiting room attached to the surgical department. No one spoke, though there were plenty of caresses, simple hugs, and a sense of family among the rabbits and foxes that awaited news.

Each time the door hissed open on pneumatic hinges Riina would flinch, part of her lifting with hope, the other cringing with dread. None of the nurses or doctors clad in dark grey scrubs approached them, though, and the group was relegated to that hardest endeavor when a loved one was in jeopardy; Waiting.

Food was brought in though the little platinum fox didn’t want any. She knew that she needed the strength it would provide, but Riina just couldn’t bring herself to eat, her stomach already tight in anxiety and also knew that any food would make her sick. Then the doors at the other end of the hallway opened, the one that led to the more public portions of the hospital and the petite vixen looked up with lowered ears and haunted eyes in time to see Lori and her girlfriend, Sammie, scamper in. The black and multihued doe darted to Riina and fell to her knees while wrapping her paws around the fox. They sat like that for several minutes, not saying anything, and not really needing words to convey their thoughts and affection for each other. For Riina, the Goth doe was like the sister she never had and the closeness the two shared bolstered her greatly.

After several hours, even the nurses being turned away that wanted to take Riina up to a room for an overnight of observation gave up trying to coerce the vixen into foregoing her vigil, one even being threatened with arrest if she didn’t stop pestering the platinum fox by a suddenly furious Judy. Things might have even gotten physical had Nick not stepped in, though it was the silent, gentle paw of Riina on the doe’s own that silenced the bunny.

It was after midnight when the doors to the surgery wing hissed open and an exhausted team of doctors emerged. Ahead of the small group was the lead surgeon on Bailey’s case, the civet’s golden brown and black spotted coat shot with grey, particularly around his muzzle, accenting the cry lines on either side of his face. He waved to the others that were heading to the doctors’ lounge while pulling off scrub overcoats and caps, tossing them into an appropriate hamper.

“Bailey’s out of surgery, but I need to discuss the details with family only,” the civet told the others as he rolled his shoulders. When no one moved and regarded him with expectation he only blinked citrine yellow eyes. “That means the parents and immediate family.”

Bonnie bristled. “This is the immediate family,” she said with a tired, petulant tone.

“Surely…” he started gesturing to Riina and the other foxes.

“This is my son’s mate,” Bonnie informed the doctor in a frosty tone as she put her paws on the vixen’s shoulders. “No out with it!”

The feline’s eyes widened as a slightly bemused expression pulled at the corners of his mouth. “Ah. Alright. Well, our first concern was, obviously, the internal injuries. The bullet that struck Bailey did considerable damage to his abdominal musculature and some trauma to his digestive tract. It wasn’t until he fell and landed in the river that some of the major injuries occurred. Apart from blood loss the wound was contaminated with bacteria that naturally thrives in open water. Then there were the contusions from impacting with rocks, the worst of which was a lacerated liver.

“Fortunately Bailey is in the best health possible. We are replacing the blood he lost, as well as giving him a course of powerful antibiotics. Our greatest fear at the moment is infection and sepsis. When it comes to the broken bones, the orthopedic, Dr. Tambin had to utilize standard casting procedures, though there was extreme damage to his right femur and hip that required the use of mechanical assistance.”

Nick and Judy understood what that meant, though Stu, despite everything his brother Jeremy had told him, looked slightly baffled. “Wait. What do you mean ‘mechanical assistance’?” the buck inquired. “Sounds like you used screws or something!”

The civet nodded. “That’s exactly what that means,” the doctor said simply. “The bone was in too many fragments. The screws in conjunction with titanium plates will enable the bone to heal in the proper configuration.”

Bonnie and Ilona all but mimicked each other as their paws went to their muzzles while Riina sighed. It was the platinum fox that spoke next.

“What…what about his gymnastics?” the vixen inquired. “H-he loves gymnastics.”

The civet swallowed and took a breath before answering. “The plates and screws should enable Bailey to live as normally as possible without limping and-“

“What about his gymnastics?” Riina asked again, her eyes hardening slightly.

“I’m afraid that his gymnastics career may be over. With the damage and then the next several months in rehabilitation and therapy…” His shoulders slumped and the doctor looked at all of the mammals before settling on Riina, Stu and bonnie last. “I’m sorry, but the chances of Bailey being able to return to gymnastics is most likely very slim. The damage was substantial.”

Riina lifted her chin defiantly. “I think you’d be surprised at what Bailey can do,” she whispered. “When can I see him?”

The civet shook his head. “It’s best he stay sedated right now. It’s going to be a few days before we’ll think about letting him wake up. He’s taken quite the beating and if he’s asleep his body will have an easier time in working on the immediate damage, not to mention his compromised immune system. Letting others in could be detrimental.”

Tears began to roll down Riina’s face. “Please. I want to see my Bailey…” she said, her plea barely a whisper.

The doctor was familiar with the vagaries canid emotional attachments, though that a fox would, or even could, develop such a bond with a non-fox astounded him, even though another such pairing stood looking expectantly at him. He finally nodded in acquiescence. “He’s being transferred to ICU at the moment. Let’s give the staff a few minutes to get him situated, then you,” he gestured to Riina, “and Mr. and Mrs. Hopps can go see him. I’m sorry. No one else.”

The group agreed and Riina felt some relief that she’d at least be able to see her rabbit before they forced her to her room.

“I want to let you know that he looks terrible, but you have my solemn promise that we’re doing everything we can for Bailey,” the civet said.

***************

The doctor had been wrong. 

Riina had her paw pressed to the glass wall of the ICU cubicle that Bailey was in and looked as machines beeped and blipped with visual representations of his pulse, respiratory rate and other bits of vital information. Beneath the monitors lay her mate looking, for use of another common vernacular that the vixen had learned, like shit.  
Bandages covered a great deal of his body while areas that had required sutures had been shaved so that it looked as if the buck had mange. Tubes and wires ran to and from Bailey, machines monitoring the fluids that were introduced to his body adjusted the medications he needed while another passed air in and out of the large, clear tube that ran from his muzzle. 

Bonnie sobbed softly before burying her face in her paws, Stu wrapping his wife in a supportive embrace. Riina felt sorry for her mate, but now that she saw him, something inside her knew he wasn’t finished yet. She felt it in her heart and in the core of her soul. She ran her paw over the glass at the point where she could see her rabbit’s face, trying to stroke the fur from a distance before kissing one finger and placing it over the transparent wall. She then whispered a traditional Finnish prayer, something Riina hadn’t done in years, offering herself to whatever divine powers might be listening. It didn’t matter to her if she lived or died so long as Bailey continued on.

They weren’t allowed to stay long and a nurse showed up before too long to take Riina to her room and return the Hopps to their family. “I’m sorry, she said softly. “It’s time to go.”

Bonnie and Stu nodded before turning to look down at Riina as she kissed a finger and touched the glass once more before being taken away so she could get some much needed rest. As they headed for the doors, the vixen happened to glance at the next ICU cubicle and noticed another rabbit, one that was painfully familiar, and paused her exit by gripping the wheels. “That’s Tara,” the vixen said. “Is she alright?”

Stu and Bonnie both jerked slightly at learning who the doe next to their son was, the bunny the cause of no end of trouble.

“I’m sorry. I can’t discuss the condition of other patients to nonfamily members,” the nurse said with a gentle firmness.

“But she’ll be alright, won’t she?” the vixen persisted. When the nurse didn’t respond Riina turned to see the bunny in medical scrubs tilt her head slightly and shrug. As they were led from the intensive care ward, the fox added a prayer for the bunny as well, Tara as much a victim of events as any of them were.

****************

Winter in Bunnyburrow was so mild as to be virtually non-existent to Riina Kettu, though many of the denizens of the Tri-Burrow region had bundled up as if an ice age were making an appearance. The vixen wore a long sleeved blouse under a jumper that left the lower half of her legs exposed and lifted her nose into the breeze, drinking in the cooler air with a smile of utmost satisfaction. On her arm to steady himself was her Bailey, his other paw gripping the strut of the crutch he used to stabilize his improving ability to walk, the young couple looking at the holiday decorations that were being switched from final harvest to a Yuletide theme.

“You know,” the rabbit began as he leaned against his vixen in a bit of affectionate love play, “one of the things that I’m looking forward to is more chances for spontaneous snuggling.”

“Mmmmmm!” the vixen cooed. “I think that I like the thought of spontaneous snuggling!” They were given nods by some of the other residents of Bunnyburrow while still others looked at them with more than a little curiosity. A few were less than cordial, though the disdain rolled off both like water droplets from an oiled canvas. “Oh! We should talk to Gideon while we’re here!”

“We really should. We haven’t seen him in a while and I still need to thank him for the crate of goodies he sent to me in the hospital.”

Just before they got to the café owned by the fox the door to the small pharmacy that had been a feature of downtown for years opened up and a stroller emerged, though the door caught the conveyance making the exit of the little family a challenge. Riina darted forward to get the door, holding it open for the young mother who looked up gratefully before making a small sound of distress.

“Riina! Bailey!” a startled Tara whispered, her ears snapping down against the rear of her skull and down her back so fast that they made a soft smacking sound.

Neither one really held any animosity towards the doe, agreeing months before to forgive her. She had been hurt by events as well and the fox and rabbit decided she had suffered enough. “They aren’t sick, are they?” the vixen inquired, leaning over the stroller to smile at the trio of bunny kittens.

“Wh-what?” Tara asked, confused by the question before realizing the business she’d just exited. “Oh. Oh, no. Just…just picking up formula and vitamins. I…I can’t nurse them because…um…because of the nip a-and other things…” 

The bunny dropped her gaze, her shoulders tensing as if she were expecting a scolding, perhaps even a slap. What happened was the last thing that the doe expected. A passer-by snorted in contempt, Tara as well known in town for the events that had transpired as Bailey and Riina and the rabbit rounded on him.

“Yeah. Keep stepping, friend. Way to show some holiday spirit!” Bailey told the rabbit with a challenging glare. He turned back to the doe and shrugged. “Some mammals forget what this time of year’s about. Hope and forgiveness.”

For her part the bunny simply stared in dumbfounded silence. This was as far from what she expected… certainly not what she felt she deserved for what she’d done and been a part of. Tara had been a monster and now the two she had hurt the most and endangered were treating her almost like a friend. It was Riina that broke through the doe’s stunned state.

“May I hold them?” the vixen asked gently.

No matter what she’d done in her past, Tara was a mother now and couldn’t help the surge of emotion when another took interest in her kits. “Ye…yes?” she answered in a choked whisper as her eyes went even wider with surprise.

“Oh! Aren’t you just adorable!” Riina crooned as she picked up one of the kits, stroking it under the chin and between the ears before putting the tiny bunny back under the blanket in the stroller and moving on to the next. “They’re beautiful!”

Tara blinked, her paw clutching at her coat over her heart. Her ears relaxed a bit, though still stayed laid back. “I-I-I…that is…um…tha…thank you?”

Riina nuzzled the last before putting her back with her sisters. “What are their names?”

“Oh,” the bunny said, not sure how to react, but losing the defensive edge. “That one is Melody, she’s Harmony, and this one,” she said as her light brown eyes began to glitter a bit, “is Hope.”

The vixen smiled warmly. “Those are good names. You made some truly beautiful kits.”

“Even though their father was Aldo Stumps. I swear he’ll never get to lay eyes on them, that’s for sure,” Tara informed the couple with more than a bit of heat and steel to her tone. 

“We were stopping into Gideon’s,” Bailey said after reaching in to touch each of the bunny kittens. “Why don’t you join us? Get them out of the cold and get something warm to drink?”

“I…what if…I don’t…” Tara stammered before the sound of a car horn pulled her out of her daze.

“Tara?” Ennio Lagotelli called from the window of the rabbit sized SUV he sat on the driver’s side seat of. “Are you ready to go home?” the old rabbit inquired, a curious glance at Bailey and Riina.

Before she could answer, the Hopps rabbit stepped towards the car. “We just invited her to join us at Gideon’s Café for something to drink and nibble on, Mr. Lagotelli. Would you like to get in on that? Our treat,” he said amiably.

The aged rabbit jerked in surprise, more than familiar about who was inviting him for refreshments before glancing at his granddaughter and seeing the spark of hope in her eyes. “That is a very generous offer, young Bailey. Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Nah. I don’t mind at all. Besides, Gid’s using some of the apples from the Kettu orchard to make a really good hot cider this year.” He smiled at the other buck. “Why don’t you park and we’ll go get a table,” Bailey said, not really giving the patriarch of the Lagotellis a chance to argue. Once more taking Riina’s arm they walked the rest of the way in an odd silence.

By the time Ennio was able to join the group of young mammals there was already a mug of steaming cider waiting and a plate of miniature turnovers. Bailey and Riina looked on as the doe gave a little bit of the filling to each of her kits, all of them smiling at the tiny bunnies reactions to the unexpected treat. The older rabbit wrapped his paws around the mug while nodding his thanks before looking at the younger buck with an indecipherable expression. “I’m not going to knock the hospitality, but I am curious as to why, Bailey? After everything that happened, why?”

It was something that the rabbit had been hearing for a bit and after long nights of not being able to sleep due to the pain of his mending leg, or after particularly trying days in physical therapy, he finally came to understand his own ability to let things go. Bailey set his mug down noticing that the three other mammals were watching him intently. Even Gideon behind the counter was leaning in their direction with his ears perked. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“That day…when I was in the river, I actually drowned. I didn’t find out about that until I was out of the hospital, but I died. My brother-in-law, Nick, he brought me back. When I found that out I guess I learned that a lot of the stuff that happened…well, Riina and I weren’t the only victims.” He looked at Tara. “What happened hurt a lot of others. Staying mad, well, that just didn’t seem important anymore. All of us made mistakes, but we can learn from them and maybe make ourselves better, like my sister is always talking about.”

Ennio gave the younger buck an appraising look as the ghost of a smile teased his aged face.

“I guess I’m saying that life is too short to hate, Mr. Lagotelli.”

“No. You’ve proven that you and your mate are adults,” the old rabbit said as he held out his paw. “I’m Ennio.”

***************

The quartet touched many subjects while they sat in the café. When Gideon started to close the blinds and lock the door, the fox waved them back down to their seats to continue their visit. He also provided warm water to mix up formula for the kits when they began fussing for their supper. Riina helped, of course, and even disappeared to the restroom to help change diapers, coming back holding the one named Melody in her paws and making soft sounds to the drowsy bunny.

They spoke of the official apology from the Bunnyburow school board at the treatment the vixen had received and the administrative dismissal of Mr. Lambert and his blacklisting as an educator, about the confiscation of the Stumps farm that had nip growing in between rows of corn and imprisonment of several rabbits and does from that particular family. The farm would be held in trust until other members of the Stumps became old enough to take control of the property or, if they so chose, the option to auction off the land.

The topic turned to Nick and Judy, the official release that Nick’s suspension had been part of a special operation to lend it verisimilitude to a larger, on-going investigation. Not only were the details about the case given, but Nick even got a small promotion out of the affair putting him on par with his wife in rank if not time in uniform. He’d passed his physical with flying colors, though that bit of news turned the conversation to Bailey himself.

“Are…are you going to be able to do gymnastics?” Tara asked, like so many other Bunnyburrow West High School alumni she was familiar with the rabbit’s love of the sport and that a scholarship was dependant on his abilities.

Bailey sighed. It was a question that he got asked more often than not. “In short? No. The damage to my leg was too severe.”

Tara’s paws went to her mouth as a large tear welled in each eye before falling to the table top between them. “You…never?!” A strangled sound came softly from her throat. “It’s all my fault…”

“No,” Bailey told the doe quietly with a slight edge to that single word. “It isn’t your fault. Me jumping off a cliff was. Hitting a rock did this to me.” He lowered his head while shaking it slightly. “Tara, all three of us are guilty of making questionable decisions this past year. It’s just the way things played out. And,” he added as he reached across the table to grip her paw before turning it over, exposing the scar on her wrist that her fur didn’t quite mask, “you paid for anything you think you might be guilty of. The only thing we can do is let go and move forward, okay?”

“B-but wha-what are you going to do? You scholarship!” the doe persisted.

“I have something in mind. Do you want to know what it is?” the rabbit inquired with an enigmatic half grin that would have made Nick proud. Both grandfather and granddaughter nodded, one a little more emphatically than the other. “It’ll depend on if I pass a physical.”

“Now you have me curious,” Ennio admitted.

Bailey looked at Riina, their paws finding the other. “Well, I thought that after everything I might follow in my sister’s footsteps. Do you think Bunnyburrow could use a Hopps as a deputy?”

The other two rabbits blinked. Even in Bunnyburrow there were no rabbit law enforcement officers, the only one that was known being Judy. The thought of Bailey being a local law enforcement officer made the other two smile. “Truly?” Ennio inquired.

Bailey nodded as Riina squeezed her mate’s paw. “I have too much here. This is my home, my family’s here…and my friends. And they never found Tracey’s body. I don’t know if she made it out of the river or if she wound up lodged between a couple of rocks or got hung up on a log. Doesn’t matter, though. This is home and I want to protect it.” He looked at the other two rabbits, his mate and Gideon who was busy preparing for the next day’s business while grinning widely. “Besides, my dad says that when you don’t know what to do, listen to the sound of your heart. If a mammal does that they can’t go wrong.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus ends this particular story, but things aren't done yet. There are tie-ins to Steve Gallacci's 'Celeste', Escher Vox and his 'Heart of the Dream' that follows shortly after this tale, and I don't think that I'm quite done with Bailey and Riina, not by a long shot!
> 
> That and I don't think I'm quite done with Tara yet, either...

**Author's Note:**

> So, I figured it was time to start getting my other stuff back up before much longer. This story takes place after 'Cry for the Children' but doesn't really contain spoilers, so...
> 
> Now, before any of you lambast me, let me point out that Riina has literally just learned 'English', so it's not all that great and hence the manner her dialogue is written in. She gets better, I promise!


End file.
